


A world in balance

by zacklover24



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Ghosts, Good Parent Haytham Kenway, M/M, Magic, Major character death - Freeform, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 22,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27176186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zacklover24/pseuds/zacklover24
Summary: Summary: Shay wasn’t supposed to die so young. He wasn’t supposed to have his life ended in such a brutal way. He was a good person, a good brother, son, and a good worker. His mortal life ended eight years ago, only for him to be reborn. Tessa Cormac had been made an orphan twice in her life, and twice she was adopted. She had a good home, a good family and a good life. But, being half dead did have it’s down sides as well it’s perks. On the eve of her nineteenth birthday, something was wrong. The natural balance was thrown off, and she has to fix it. There are some things in this world that are a necessary evil. Supernatural Au inspired by the art of pluma-azurea on tumblr.
Relationships: Desmond Miles/Lucy Stillman, Evie Frye/Henry Green | Jayadeep Mir, Ezio Auditore da Firenze/Leonardo da Vinci, Jacob Frye/Original Female Character(s), Kaniehtí:io | Ziio/Haytham Kenway, Malik Al-Sayf/Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Shay Cormac/Original Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Stories like these always seem to start on cold winter nights. When the moon is full and the night air is so cold that it freezes you to your very soul. These were the nights when no living soul should be out. But, for the citizens of Sleepy Hollow, there was one soul who was awake. This soul was not alive, in fact, he hadn't been alive for a very long time. Colonel George Monro, was having an odd evening. The day had brought snow, and ice, to the roads, woods and the sidewalk had been curved in a thick layer of each. The former colonel had no hate towards the snow and ice but he did find it trying. 

He missed feeling the cold brush of winter's embrace on his skin, he missed being able to touch snow and feel how soft yet cold it was, he missed so much. Monro let out a soft, quiet breath as he rode to the very edge of town, he couldn’t step foot outside of town, it was the curse he bore since his death. But, Monro liked being at the edge of town. It gave him a feeling of peace, a feeling of being alive once more. As the colonel sat, on Isabel ( his trusted steed in life and death) he was making plans to leave, when he heard crying. 

“What on earth?” Monro whispers, as he dismounts from Isabel. The horse let out a scared whiny, as the ghost waited. Out of the cold darkness came a figure. To Monro shock and honor the figure was a little boy. 

The boy looked to be seven, with messy dark brown hair and blue eyes, the boy was very skinny. The boy's cheeks were red and flushed, and his eyes were red from crying. And what made Monro heart stop was the small bundle he was carrying. It was a baby, wrapped up as tight as it could be and it was crying its eyes out. The boy spied Monro and stopped in front of him, holding the baby close. 

“Are you lost, little one?” Monro softly asks as he knelt in front of the boy. The boy nodded his head and a shiver ran up his spine, he wasn't dressed to be out in the cold this late, Monro mused. “Where are your parents?” 

“I don’t know. They left us and never came back, I waited for hours.” The boy admitted as the baby was still crying, “She won’t stop crying. Can you help us, please?” 

Monro gave the boy a soft smile, “I can try.” He says as he gently takes the baby. Monro gently rocked the baby, and she settled down, but something was off. Her face was flushed and she was coughing and her eyes were glassy as she gasped for air, “I think your sister is sick.” 

The boy’s eyes went wide with fright, “Is she going to be okay?” 

“I do hope so, I have friends in town, who may be able to help.” Monro tells him, oh how he longed to be alive, to give the baby some warmth. “Do you and your sister have names?” 

The boy nodded his head, “I’m Shay Cormac, and that’s my sister Tessa Cormac. She’s only a few months old. And I’m seven.” Shay proudly tells him with a smile, he was missing his two front teeth. 

Monro gave the boy a soft smile, “Come now young master Shay, my friends the Finnegan’s should offer us some help.” Monro says, as he carefully mounted his horse, and picked up Shay, and placed him in front. As he held Tessa close as she started to cough. 

“Just hold on Tessa.” Shay whispers. Monro spurred Isabel into action and rode back to town, as if the devil himself was hot on there heels. As Monro rode, he spied his dear friend Gist out wandering the woods. His hat was tipped low, as his jack o latent guided Monro back to town.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

To Monro's great relief, Cassidy and Barry were more than happy to help. Cassidy was quick to tend to Tessas as Barry tended to Shay. Barry was able to give the boy a hot bath, and some of his son’s Oilver clothes to the wear. Cassidy was able to treat Tessa, and once morning came to get the pair to the doctors. Both of them were underweight, and according to the doctor the pair would live, with a good home and loving parents. 

“She likes you.” Cassidy teasses, to Monro. ( _Monro had stopped by the inn, the Finnegan's owned. The inn was the oldest hotel in town and had been in the family for generations. It was a comfy and welcoming place_.) Once the Finnegan’s arrived back from the doctor. Barry was making lunch for the boys, as Cassidy was getting a bottle ready for Tessa. Monro offered to hold Tessa as she busied herself with the task. The colonel was sat by the fire, as the baby gazed up at him with wide eyes.

“I doubt she understands what is going on.” Monro says, as Tessa was looking at him with her big blue eyes. 

“She will in time.” Cassidy tells him, as she took the baby from Monro. Cassidy took the other chair by the fire with a content sigh.

“What do you plan to do with them?” Monro asks watching Cassidy bottle feed the infant. 

“Keep them.” She responds with a smile, “There’s no use in putting them in the system.” 

“Why is that?” The colonel asks with confusion in his voice. It was plain as day to the old ghost that the children had been abandoned, they would need a family.

“Children Shay age have a hard time adopting out, while a baby as cute as Tessa would have no issue. The problem lies in the fact that I doubt Shay wants to be separated from his sister. And it’s very hard to find a couple who would want both.” Cassidy explains. 

“Can you and Barry handle the three of them?” Monro asks, with a head title. 

“Aye, we can. Oliver and Shay are the same age, and rising Tessa will be a snap. And I’m sure you and Gist will be around to keep an eye on them.” Cassidy points out, with a soft smile. 

Monro let out a hum as he reached over to gently stroke the babies check, “I do not know what you are implying.” 

“Oh nothing, these children owe you there lives is all.” Cassidy tells him. 

“Perhaps you are right.” Monro says as the baby had stopped drinking and was burped and laid to rest in Oliver's old bassinet. 

“Of course I’m right. Tessa and Shay owe you everything. If it wasn't for you they would be dead.” Cassidy tells him, as Tessa was slow to fall asleep, as she was watching Monro. Monro gently stroked the baby's check once more, lulling her to sleep. 

“You might be right. I can see myself and Gist taking these young souls under our wings, and teaching them the balance of this world.” Monor says with a gentle smile. 

“Of course you will.” Cassidy tells him.

“The world may have been cruel to you now but I swear it will never be again.” Monor vows, to sleeping babe.

************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************

** Five years later **

“Monro?” Tessa asks, as she sits in the old ghost lap. In Tessa's hands was a book, and the old ghost was helping her read.

“Yes, my sweet?” He asks, looking down at the five year old. It was a crisp autumn afternoon, Monro, Gist, Oliver, Shay and Tessa were in Gist glade. Gist was in the middle teaching the twelve year old boys basic magic. As Tessa was practicing her reading with Monro. 

“Gist told me something, and I’m not sure if it’s true.” She tells him. 

“And what did Gist tell you my sweet?” He asks, watching, Shay knock Oliver over with a spell. 

“That the head, we see isn’t real. It's just an illusion.” She explains, pouting. 

Monro let out a soft chuckle and a head pat, “Yes, Gist is correct on that. I am using a powerful illusion spell.” 

“How come?” She asks.

“You see, my sweet a long time ago, I was in a war. And during that war, my head was knocked clean off with a cannon ball. Thus killing me. When I awoke, I woke as a ghost, and a ghost without a head. It was Gist that taught me how to use the spell.” Monro explains. 

“But, everyone in town calls you the headless horseman. How come?” Tessa asks, confused. 

“Oh that. Well it all started a long ago, with a man named Ichabod crane and his wicked heart.” Monro paused watching Gist correct the boys, “But, that my sweet is a story for another time. For now we should focus on your reading.” 

Tessa wrinkled her nose, “Do I gotta?” 

“Yes, you do.” 

End of line 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5 years later, late March Sleepy Hollow woods

Haytham Kenway was not a man who worried about his children. In fact he had very high hopes for all four of his kids. Altair, his eldest son was making strides in his art program and had been fast track for a career in game design, and Connor, ever the outdoors man, was learning everything he could about animal care, Ziio had made a comment about him being a vet later in life. Desmond, who was always eager to learn from his father, was taking to law pretty quickly. He could see his son becoming a lawyer later in life. 

And then there was Tessa, his adoptive daughter. The girl had been quiet and standoffish, ever since they found out about Shay. The girl's world came crashing down around her, when the police found his corpse in December, the poor girl had spent three hours crying her eyes out. And now finally in March they were burying him. Haytham's heart ached for her truly. She seemed to be doing fine during the funeral but, once the coffin was lowered into the ground the girl took off into the woods. Ziio was ready to go after her, but Haytham said he would.

Haytham scowled as his foot got trapped in a mud puddle. The man hated March. The month wasn't sure it wanted to be winter, with a thin layer of snow ice on the ground and a cold chill clung to the air. Or if it wanted to be spring. As the snow melted turning the snow into mud. 

“TESSA! Sweetheart where are you?” Haytham yells into the woods. It was starting to get late and was getting worried for the girl. Haytahm went on his way, getting himself stuck a few more times. And he called out to her a few more times, and then he heard it, a loud yell followed by a splash. 

Haytham's heart stopped, “TESSA!” He yells running to where he heard the yell, and then he stopped short. He was by a river with a bridge. And kneeling next to the river was a man. The man was wearing a black overcoat that was accented with gold and red, and the man wore a rounded hat that was black and it was trimmed with yellow and it had a ribbon. In the men’s lap was Tessa. She was drenched and bleeding from a wound on her forehead. 

“Come now my sweet.” He said softly as he pressed down on her chest. 

Haytham couldn’t stop the words that came out of his mouth, “What the hell are you doing?” He growls. 

“Trying to save her life.” The man calmly says pressing down again. 

“You need to press down harder, colonel.” A new voice says. From behind Haytham, another man appeared. He dressed warmly, and was carrying a tall staff with a jack o lantern hanging off of the stick.

“Thank you Gist.” The colonel says pressing down harder, doing so allowed Tessa to cough up the water that was in her lungs, “There we are my dear. Come now she will be okay.” As the man gestured for Hatyham to come closer, and he kneeled down next to the man. Meanwhile Gist was looking at the bridge, when he didn't find what he was looking for, he stuck his staff into the ground.

“Who are you?” Haytham asks, as the colonel placed Tessa on his lap. 

“George Monro at your services and this is my friend Christopher Gist.” Monor says watching Gist rummage through his coat’s pocket, “Will she be okay?” 

“She should be, but first let’s get her dry.” Gist whispers rotating his wrist clockwise and whispering something in a language that Haytham didn’t know. In Gist's hand appeared a small ball of light, and he flicked it over Tessa, and he was no longer drenched. “We can’t have the little deer getting sick on us.” 

Monor smiled softly, “No, we can not. I know you must have questions for us, but know this. We mean you no harm.” 

Haytham narrowed his eyes as he held Tessa closer to him. “How can I trust you?”

Gist let out a chuckle as he pulled out a cloth and a jar of salve from his pocket. “Trust me Haytham if we wanted to hurt you, then you would be dead.” Gist warns, as his eyes flashed red.

Haytham blinked once then twice, “Gist.” Monor warns, moving towards Haytham and Tessa, “We've known Tessa since she was very small.” As he gently moved a piece of dark brown hair behind her ear, and then saw a flash of silver in her hair. “Gist.”

“Yes, I saw. Good news it can be easily hidden.” Gist says dapping the cloth into the water and cleaning out the wound. Tessa let out a weak moan as her eyes fluttered open, ice blue eyes met, Haytham grey blue eyes. Haytham settled her, as she moved to hide her face in his chest.

Gist let out a soft chuckle as he moved her head back towards him, “I know it's cold sweetheart, but I’m almost done.” Gist soothes, whipping the rest of the blood away. The cut wasn’t that bad, “Head wounds are nasty bleeders.” 

“Gist her hand.” Monor says, as he turned Tessa right palm over. On her palm was a jagged burn. 

“What the hell happened to her.” Haytham growls. 

“One does not have brush with an avatar of death, without there being side effects.” Gist simply says, “She’ll be alright.” As he applied the salve to her head and palm. “So she’ll only live to ninety instead of ninety-five. Still a long and filling life.” 

“Very true.” Monor agrees standing and brushing some of the mud off his pants. Haytham followed him, up, adjusting Tessa. The girl’s head rested on his shoulder, as he held her close. “We should head back before everyone starts to worry.” Gist nodded his head and handed the salve to Haytham,

“Apply this to her wound every night before she goes to bed for the next three weeks, and all will be healed.” 

“Thank you.” Haytham says taking the jar from Gist. Gist smirked and took his staff and headed out. 

“Come, come, we need to leave before night falls.” Gist calls out, as Haytham follows after him. 

The walk back was something. Gist was leading on ahead and happily singing some song, as Haytham held Tessa tight. Monor was standing to his side. 

“Today has been very stressful for her. I suspect that she needed time away from everything.” Monor states, as if not speaking to Haytham but to himself, “Shay was a good boy. A fine brother, son and lover. He will be missed.” 

“I hardly knew him.” Haytham admits as Tessa let out a soft whine, as he buried her face into his shoulder. 

“In a few days time, talk to her about him. Tessa is mourning the loss of her only brother. She is in pain. I fear, this pain will never go away.” Monor says reaching over and rubbing Tessa's head. “She is a good girl, caring, smart, clever and creative. You will take care of her?” 

“As if she was my own blood.” Haytham states. “I wish I could make things better for her.” 

Monor tapped his check a few times, “There is a woman in town, Mrs. Silver owns a bakery. Ask her for a batch of her famous, apple spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. There the sweethearts favorite.” 

“I- thank you.” Haytham says, “She’s been so quiet and alone. We were starting to worry about her.” 

“Losing Shay has deeply wounded her. She just needs time and comfort.” Monor tells him. 

“Here we are.” Gist announces, to the two of them. Gist had led them to the edge of the woods, and back to the church. The church grounds were empty, save for the largest English Mastiff, Haytham had ever seen. The dog was laying down in front of the church steps, eyeing Haytham. 

“Oh and Haytham we don’t normally tolerate trespassers in our woods. Next time you wonder, watch your step.” Gist warns, turning and leaving him alone. Haytham stood there dumbfound, what the hell happened? Haytham wasn't in the mood to figure it out, as he turned to leave Monor stopped him.

“Haytham, moment of your time.” Monor calls out, stopping him dead in his tracks.

“Yes, how may I help you?” He asks, adjusting Tessa.

“A little bit of kindness does not go far in this world. But, I do believe she needs it.” Monor says pulling something out his pocket. The something was a pair of rings. One of the rings was silver with abstract cravings along the band, while in the center was a square cut garnet with a cross carved in the center, and the second ring was a simple gold ring with a polished opal in the center.

“I can't possibly accept these.” Haytham says staring down at the rings.

“There a gift for the deer one. As I said she needs a little bite of kindness.” Monor tells him.

“I- thank you.” Haytham says taking the rings.

“Your welcome.” Monor tells him, “Do take care, deer one, it will get better.”

End of line.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 9 years later; last week of October

“Has anyone seen my necklace, earrings and rings?” Tessa asks, leaving her room, and heading to the main room of the apartment. 

“No.” Was the choursed answered by everyone. Tessa rolled her eyes and surveyed the room. Jacob, Connor and Desmond were all sitting on the couch. While Malik, Altair, Ezio, Leonardo, Henry and Evie were seated at the table in the middle of the island. And by the door were a large stack of bags. 

“I see your newest tattoo is healing up.” Malik comments as he bite into his bagel. 

“Last one I swear.” Tessa tells him as she started to look around the main room. 

“That’s what she said about the knot.” Henry comments, as Tessa rolled her eyes. 

“I thought she said her last one was of the world tree.” Evie asks, nibbling on her doughnut. 

Tessa chose to ignore them as looked at her reflection and all of her tattoos. On her right collar bone was a holly branch, while on the opposite side was the wolfsbane plant. The stem from the wolfsbane and the branch from the holly joined at the base of her throat, to form a circle. Where a red and still healing marigold sat.

Upon her right shoulder was a crescent moon with a cloud backdrop, with silver and turquoise bear sitting down in its left paw was some honeysuckle, while in its right paw, moon stone, while in right's paw it held a moon stone. The image was finished off with some fresh jasmine set by the bear's feet.

Her eyes moved down to look over her right forearm. Here she had images of a yellow owl and gold colored dove sitting either side of a bowl, with a sun shining upon them. At the base of the sun was a tiger lily, crossing with a piece of indigo, with a piece of onyx drawn next to them.

Finally, she came to the opposite arm. On her inner wrist she had a simple celtic knot, but it was the tattoo above that was most special to her. Here she had a black and white version of a world tree, in its branches was the name _‘Shay Patrick Cormac'_ , while the dates of his birth and death were carved into its trunk. Tessa had personally chosen the colors to match the silver belt buckle that had once belonged to her brother, but upon his death she had inherited it and would wear it often. Tessa's hand quickly grazed the buckle, thankful that it didn't get misplaced.

“Fuck, we can’t leave till I find my jewerly.” Tessa hisses, as she was looking under the coffee table. 

“We're leaving once mom and dad get here.” Altair corrects. 

“You guys can, I’m not leaving till I find my jewelry.” Tessa quickly corrects him. 

“Tess.” Jacob says as she looked up to see her, gold cross necklace, her gold stud earrings with opals in them and her rings, “I had them. I thought I would polish them for you.” 

“Aww thank you honey.” Tessa says with a sheepish smile, as she put her jewelry on. 

“Tessa, Connor you both remembered to pack your sleeping pills?” Altair asks the pair. 

“Yes.” Both Connor and Tessa respond with an eye roll. Tessa headed over to the island to grab a doughnut for herself when she saw it. There were three empty cloth coolers.

“Jacob, Ezio, you were supposed to pack the snack bags. Come on guys we have a three hour drive ahead of us.” Tssa gripes as she ate the last chocolate doughnuts.

“And we'll get to it.” Ezio tells her with a half shrug, which earned him a hard elbow jab from Leonardo, “Right it seems we're doing that now. We don’t want to be late leaving with Ziio and Haytham.” 

“No, no we don’t.” Jacob agreed as he stood to help Ezio pack, “Whose cars are we taking again?” 

“Me, mom, Tessa and Altiar, are taking Altair's car, Jacob, Evie, Henry and Connor are taking Jacob’s car, dad, Malik, Ezio and Leonardo are taking dad’s car.” Desmond tells him not looking up from his phone, “And Lucy just sent me a text, her family stuff is done, and she’ll meet us at the ‘ _The Green Dragon inn._ ’” 

“Well good.” Tessa says sliding into Ezio's empty spot. “Hey Leonardo, are you taking your drawing tablet and extra stylus with you?” 

“Yes, I take it you are as well.” He asks. 

“Yup, I’m also taking my sketch book, charcoals and pastels with me. Need something to do on the drive down.” She tells him. 

“Don’t get car sick...again.” Altair warns, narrowing his eyes at his sister. Who just gave him a cute and innocent look, “You somehow manage to get car sick each time you draw. Why is that?” 

“It’s a skill only Tessa has.” Connor calls out from his spot on the couch. 

“Fuck you Connor.” Tessa says flipping him off.

“You're not my type.” Connor nonchalantly says with a shrug.

“Do you even have a type?” Jacob and Ezio both ask, and get them a death glare from Connor.

“Leave him alone.” Evie quickly says, throwing her rolled up napkin at her twin.

“Oh fuck.” Tessa hisses shooting up out of her seat and heading to her room “I need to finish packing my bag.” She didn’t hear what Ezio said as she closed the door. 

Tessa shared her room with Jacob. There room was an organized mess, but they loved it. On the desk chair, was Tessa's leather messenger bag. The bag was made out of light brown leather, with a deer standing in front of a full moon, the bag was also a gift from Gist. Tessa was quick to stuff the rest of her stuff into it, right as Altair called saying that Ziio and Haytham were here. 

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Three hours later, they arrived in Sleepy Hollow. The sky had once been bright blue and cheerful was now dark and unwelcoming as storm clouds had rolled in. 

“Looks like rain.” Connor comments after they had parked in the parking lot.

“Crap.” Tessa hissed as the storm clouds were indeed rolling in. 

“Something wrong tess?” Jacob asks as Tessa shifts her weight from foot to foot.

“I was going to go see Shay. I always visit him, when I get here.” She explains rubbing her left forearm.

“You'll just have to visit him tomorrow.” Haytham tells her, as he pulls out the bags.

“Yea, I know dad.” Tessa mutters with a sigh.

“It will be fine dear, I’m sure Shay will understand.” Ziio tells her with a smile. 

“Your probably right mom.” Tessa agrees, grabbing her bags and heading in. 

The outside of the green dragon inn definitely looked like something out of the seventeen hundreds. With it being made out of stone with a slanting roof and hand painted sign with the inns name on it. Outside of the inn was a rather large and impressive collection of jack o lanterns. Each pumpkin had a unique expression carved into them.

While the inside was more morden. The lobby was very warm and welcoming with hardwood floors, a roaring fire, with couches, and chairs near it, and a simple coffee table between the couches. In the back of the room was a door that led to the guest rooms, and the dinning room. The check in desk was made out of red oak, and also in the back of the room were a pair of towering book cases. 

Oliver Finngean was the owner of the inn; he had long sandy blonde hair, with emerald green eyes, he was also tall. In his left ear was a silver stud earring, and in his right was a gold stud with a pearl in it. He wore a simple black v neck shirt and jeans.

The man was heavily tattooed, on his left shoulder was the wheel Hecate. While on his opposite shoulder was a lovely lyre, sitting under a laurel tree, and resting in the tree branches was a raven. Tattooed on his inner right forearm, was a majestic black ram, grazing under a cypress tree while a world weary screech owl sat in its branches. And finally beneath the tree was black and gray key, with a skull in the bottom. Oliver let out a yawn, as leaned against the desk. He was looking over the list of checks in and check outs.

“OLIVER!” Tessa yells, as she ran to her brother. She quickly peeled off her black hoodie, that was accented with red and silver, and tossed it onto the desk.

“TESSA!” He yells back, opening his arms, as she runs and hugs him tightly and then pulls out to look at her. “I’ve missed you.” As he gently ran a finger over the new tattoos, “Let's see holly for protection and to amplify your magical powers nice, wolfsbane for misanthropy and death. An odd choice, but a clever one. And a marigold are you trying to say that you are passionate and creative or are you saying that you are strong and passionate or are you saying that you are cruel, grieving and jealous?” 

“I don't know, which one do you think it is?” She asks with a smirk and a wink.

“I truly don't know, with you. But, how is my favorite sister?” He asks, squeezing her shoulder.

“Don't know how, is my favorite brother?” She asks ,missing the scowl from Altair, a scoff from Connor and Desmond. “Right, Oliver you remember my mom Ziio and my dad Haytham.”

“I do remember you. It's been what nine almost ten years?” Oliver asks, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle. 

“It has been a long time.” Ziio admits, “The last time we met it wasn't under the best circumstances.” 

“No, no it wasn't.” Oliver agrees with a second nervous chuckle. “So sweetheart who is everyone else.” 

“Oh right, this is my boyfriend Jacob, this is Jacob's twin sister Evie her boyfriend Henry, my brother Connor, my brother Desmond, my brother Altair and his boyfriend Malik and Ezio and Leonardo. Oh did someone name Lucy check in?” Tessa asks.

“She did, and she said that Desmond was to get her other room card.” Oliver says handing a room key to Desmond, “If I'm right the only one who is rooming by themselves is Connor right?” 

“That's right.” Connor tells him, Oliver smirked and handed him and everyone there room keys.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The rooms at the inn were comfy yet rustic. The walls had a simple wood lands wallpaper, while the floor had gray carpet. The beds(which were all kings) were rustic wood bed frames, with colorful quilts and pillows on them. There was a window overlooking the town, two ends tables on either, also rustic, TV and bathroom. 

“So that was Oliver, he seems nice.” Jacob says as he and Tessa were unpacking. 

“He is my favorite brother.” Tessa absentmindedly says, Jacob gave her a look, “Okay second to Altair, Desmond, Connor and Shay.” She admits rubbing her forearm. 

Jacob rolled his eyes and pecked Tessa on the lips, “Do I need to be afraid of Oliver giving me, ' _if you hurt her, I will hurt you'_ speech?” He asks.

Tessa let out a soft chuckle, “I doubt it. I've told Oilver all about you.” 

“Oh? And what my dear sweet sparrow did you tell him?” Jacob asks with a mischievous smile on his face. 

“That you make me happy, and that's good enough for him. He said that is what Shay would have wanted for me.” She explains, sitting on the bed, “It just feels so surreal.” 

“Surreal that we're all here or that Shay has been gone for so long?” He asks, sitting down next to her.

“It's a mix of both really. I'm glad that we're all here, but I wish Shay was here.” She admits with a bitter sigh.

Jacob let a hum, as he wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close. “How did you and Shay get adopted by Oliver's parents?” 

“I never told you that story? They found us, or well my grandfather found us. I was only a few months old and Shay was seven. Ma didn't want us to go into the system, thinking that we would be separated. So they kept us.” Tessa explains snuggling into Jacob's chest.

“Your grandfather? Was he the one that gave you, your rings?” He asks, tapping her rings. 

Tessa let out a content sigh, “And ma gave me my cross and you gave me my earrings.” 

“You're just like a magpie.” Jacob jokes.

“But, I'm your magpie. “ She says smiling.

“Yes, you are.” Jacob agrees.

End of line 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oliver, Malik, Altair: 28  
> Connor, Desmond, Evie, Ezio, Henry, Jacob, Leonardo: 20   
> Tessa: 19, turning 20


	4. Chapter 4

The strong smell of cookies, welcomed Tessa and Jacob, when they got to the lobby. That and the fact they were the last ones to arrive back. Lucy was sitting next to Desmond and Tessa gave her a small wave. On the table however were a batch of ginger cookies. 

“I take it granny was here.” Tessa asks, picking up a cookie, and biting into it.

“Sure was, and she was asking for you.” Oliver tells her, “She wanted to know what type of cake you want.” 

Tessa's shoulders slumped, “She asks every year, and my answer never changes.” 

“Well this year it's not just us. We got more people.” Oliver points out, “She wanted to know if you wanted to change it.” 

“Right.” Tessa says, finishing her cookie, as she looked out the window, as she slowly inched over to the coat rack where her hoodie was, “It hasn’t started to rain yet.”

“It shouldn’t start till after five, and she’s gone.” Oliver mutters watching Tessa leave. 

“Where is she going?” Lucy asks as Oliver sat down with a sigh. 

“She went to go see, Shay.” Oliver says with a half shrug. 

“Does she always go and see him?” Lucy asks watching as Oliver nodded his head yes. 

“The dead like it when you visit. Besides she’s going to be fine.” He says picking up a cookie. 

“How come?” Altair asks, handing a cookie to Malik. 

“Well the church dog, morrigan is there. She’s a big dog.” Oliver explains with a hand wave, “Plus a small town, everyone knows Tessa, and knows where she is going.” 

“Oliver how are your parents?” Ziio asks him, changing the topic. 

“Mom, and dad are fine. They love there condo in Palm Springs. They call every friday to make sure the inn wasn’t sent on fire and I’m still in charge. They sent up some gifts for Tessa.” He tells her. 

“I hope you hid them well, we all know that she likes a bloodhound when it comes to finding gifts.” Desmond jokes, which got a laugh from everyone. 

“Don’t worry about there gifts there well hidden. Your gifts if you want, are at the Van Tassel farm house.” Oliver tells him. 

“Why?” Connor asks him. 

“Right, you don’t know the tradition. Every year we have dinner and cake here at the inn, and then we go to the Van Tassel farm house. The farm house has a big fire pit, we make bone fire, and open gifts.” Oliver explains, “After that we sit by the fire and tell ghost stories, and don’t come back till midnight.” 

“Van Tassel that name sounds familiar,” Henry mutters, “That wouldn't have anything to do with Katrina Van Tassel, the young woman from ‘ _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’_?” 

“The one and the same.” Oliver says matter of factly, “That story is more than just a ghost story, it's real.” 

Malik let out a chuckle, “Are you telling us that really happened?” 

“Very much so, in fact lookup.” Oliver says gesturing to the top of the mantel. On the wall above the mantel was painting. 

The painting was ominous, in every sense of the word. The frame was positioned horizontally on the wall. The background was of the night sky dotted with stars, and a bright full moon with a few pale clouds. The middle ground was of a dark and eerie forest with tall, black, leafless trees. But it was the main subject of the painting. It was a man on a pale white horse with glowing red eyes, with smoke coming out its mouth. The figure was, a man dressed in black jacketed trimmed with yellow and red, with a white ruffle on the neck. In one hand was a jack-o'-lantern with a dark expression carved into it. In his other hand, was a sword that was gleaming in the moonlight. The painting looked like it would come to life at any moment and attack them. 

“That looks like something Tessa would paint, in fact that is her style.” Leonardo points out, as he moved closer to Ezio. Those the figure had no head, it was still creepy. 

“She made that?” Jacob asks as he raises an eyebrow. 

“About two years ago, I want to say. Mom comossied her, said she wanted something to tie the room together.” Oliver explains, with a huff and an eye roll, “When Tessa comes back we can tell you the real story behind the horseman.” 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The topic of the horseman was not brought up that day or that night. By the time Tessa made it back from visiting Shay it had started to rain, and granny had followed Tessa back. Granny was determined to talk to her. Tessa was dragged away, to talk about the cake and few other things. And Oliver had work to do, and without Tessa he wasn’t going to spoil the story. The rest of the day and night went off without a hitch. 

That was until one am. Tessa hadn’t taken her sleeping pills, she wanted to try to fall asleep without them. She had thought going to bed early would help. And it didn’t. Jacob was sleeping peacefully on his side, and Tessa envied him. Tessa blew some raspberries as she got out of bed, slipped on her boots, necklace, and her hoodie. 

“A walk might help.” She whispers to herself, thankfully the rain had stopped around eleven. 

Which she was grateful for. The streets were empty and it was eerie. Puddles dotted the road and sidewalks, and there was a gently rustling of the leaves by the wind. Tessa kept to the sidewalk as she walked. She was trying to make herself tired and she wasn’t doing such a good job at it. As she walked down to the church, she heard something. It sounded like a horse. 

Which was odd, Monor and Gist never came into town. And they were the only two people she knew who had horses. With a shrug, and touch of curiosity, she headed towards the horse. But, then she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a horse alright. It was large and imposing, all black horse, with silver and purple reins and saddle, and the most jarring aspect of the horse, it was missing its head. Holy fucking shit. Tessa was quick to find the rider, and she did. And her heart nearly stopped. 

Tessa was in shock, by the creature in the street. The first thing or the second thing she noticed was that the creature was missing there head, the second thing was that figure was tall. It probably cleared seven feet tall. The creature was clad in a long black overcoat, trimmed in silver and red, with two brown leather straps going across its chest. The jacket was adorned with silver buckles, with some hidden by the straps. The creature was wearing a pair of black gloves with silver skulls embroidered on the back of gloves.

Around the creature's waist was a red and white sash that hung over it's right hip. On top of the sash was a ridiculous amount of brown belts. And on one of the belts, was something. She couldn't make it out, since the pouch was on its hip and was hiding something but she could see that it was something. Tessa took a step back in fright, nearly slipping in a puddle. She knew what the creature in front of her was. It was a dullahan. A dullahan that was missing its head, and brandishing a whip made out of a human spine.

She prayed that the dullahan didn’t see her. “Please don’t see me.” She chants as she backed away slowly. 

When Tessa assumed she was safe, she booked it back to the inn. There was no way, a dullahan was in, sleepy hollow. There was no way. She made it back to the inn, in one piece and quickly took one of her pills. She had to have seen things. That was the only explanation. Tessa carefully placed her cross on the doorknob of the room, and her ring on the window still in the bedroom. 

“Any amount of gold will keep a dullahan away.” She whispers before crawling back into bed. She curled up against Jacob, who was unaware that Tessa had left. The dullahan couldn't get in now. Or she hoped not. 

End of line 


	5. Chapter 5

Morning came, and Tessa was curled up into Jacob's side. She was trying to hide from the sun and hide the fact she didn't get much sleep. Jacob was softly humming as he was playing with her chocolate locks. Tessa let out a whine, which Jacob ignored and kept at it.

“Stop.” She mumbles, as she tried to swat his hand away. Jacob caught her hand and placed a small kiss to the back of it.

Jacob let out a soft chuckle, as he got back at it. “Why do you hate me playing with your hair?” 

“Just do.” She mumbles, burying her face under the covers. Jacob let out a soft sight, as he pulled her closer. The pair were enjoying themselves, but then it ended. Tessa's phone went off buzzing, and the pair let out a groan. Jacob fumbled around the nightstand and pulled the phone from its charger. 

“Tess it’s your asshole client. He wants to know if he can add his name onto the haul of the longship.” Jacob tells her, as Tessa narrowed her eyes knowing there was more, “And he wants his name to be in old Norse. Un fucking believable, I’m going to tell him you can do it, but your charing him an extra twenty.” 

“Thank you.” Tessa tells him gabbing and putting her phone down, “I can’t wait to be over and done with this guy. He has to be the worst client I’ve ever had.” 

Jacob let out a snort, “You wanted to make custom tattoos. But, I agree this guy is an asshole, the sooner you get his piece done the better.” Jacob agrees, as her phone buzzed again, “He agrees to the piece in crese. I take it you're going to work through breakfast.” 

“It would appear so.” Tessa moans, “Once breakfast is done, I was going to go see Shay, and then after we can go for a walk?” 

“You want me to come with you when you visit Shay?” Jacob asks, as Tessa sat up and stretched her arms upward. “Didn’t think you wanted anyone to come with you.” 

“Well you're different. You're my boyfriend and I want you to come with me.” She tells him, “Oliver told me that if Shay was still with us, he would have approved of you.” 

“You really think so?” 

“I do. Shay would have loved you.” She tells him with a gentle smile. 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The couple headed for the dining room, where everyone was. There was a lovely buffet laid out for them for breakfast, as Oliver was talking with Haytham and Ziio. Tessa let out a sigh as she sat her tablet down at one of the tables. 

“I’ll grab us some food, you get to work.” Jacob says kissing her check. With a huff, Tessa walked over to Oliver, 

“ _Libros veteris Nordmannie sedibus mare conscendisse Numquid habemus adhuc in lingua(_ Do we have any books on the old Norse language?)” Tessa asks, as everyone was stunned by the fact she wasn't specking English. Oliver tapped his foot a few times, before nodding his head,

“ _Reprehendo fasciae tertii ab imo usque ad sinistrum latus esset liber. Si non reprehendo fasciae scalæ esset intempesta medium non massa. (_ Check the shelf that is third from the bottom, the book should be on the far left hand side. If not there check the shelf above it, and it should be in the dead center, can't miss it.)” Oliver tells her, to which Tessa said a quick thank you and left. Oliver turned his attention to Jacob, “Mind telling me why, Tessa needs a book on the Old Norse language?” 

Jacob rolled his eyes and let out a scoff, “She has a client who wants a custom longboat tattoo, he emailed her asking for his name on the haul.” He explains. 

“That asshole?” Desmond asks, stabbing his eggs, “How many times has he emailed her now?” 

“I think we're to ten.” Ezio tells him, “He has to be the most demanding client she has ever had.” 

“No, the bastard who kept pestering her for something similar to the one she has in honor of Shay was pretty bad.” Altair points out, “I can’t even remember how we got him to piss off.” 

“You threatened to take legal action.” Ziio tells him, “You used your father.” 

Altair, Desmond and Connor all winced, “It worked at least.” Connor tells her. 

“ _Vetus Nordmannie sedibus mare conscendisse verbis incipiens a me odisse(_ I’m starting to hate the old Norse language.)” Tessa states coming back with a heavy red and gold book.

Oliver chuckle, “ _Odium est, fortis est. At non te inveni librum.( H_ ate is a strong word. But, I see you found the book.)” 

“ _Et quidem gratias ago Deo. Omnia illa librorum pertinent ad ius Gist. (_ Yea, thank God. All those books belong to Gist right.)” Tessa asks, sitting down and picking at her food. 

“ _Et reliquerunt ibi Gist liceat. Quattuor abhinc menses, dixit quod non vellent, aut quid iam ut pereas paratum. (_ Yea, Gist left them here, let me. Four months ago, said something not wanting to be ruined or something.)” Oliver tells her. “ _Petam ad villam, hoc post meridiem. Si videbunt Monro, vis ei dicere hi dicis? (_ I'm heading to the farmhouse this afternoon. If I see Monro, want me to tell him you say hi?)” 

“ _Si tu? Scio eum iret, sed quae geruntur. Non possum. Scire velim._ (Would you? I know I should go and see him, but with everything going on. I can't. I hope he understands.)” Tessa asks as she was playing with her eggs. 

Oliver let out a snort, “ _Et Homine non est, non potest tibi esse ad insaniam convertunt. Vos scitis quanta ipse amat te. Et post omnium est domus. (_ It's Monro, he could never be mad at you. You know how much he loves you. He's family after all.)” 

“ _Et post omnium est domus._ ( He is family after all.)” Tessa repeats with a soft smile and soft voice. Oilver and Tessa kept talking in Latin as the rest of the group could only look on. All but Lucy, who looked annoyed and understood what they were saying. But, she didn't say anything. Tessa ate and worked on her comossin and once she was done, she and Jacob left.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Tessa and Jacob were walking to the graveyard, Jacob was taking in the sights, while Tessa was drawing in her journal. A few times, Jacob had to guide her away from the road and back onto the sidewalk. 

“How do you do that?” He asks as Tessa let out a hum. 

“Do what?” She asks him with a head tilt. 

“Walk and draw at the same time.” He asks, as she was adding something to the drawing. 

“Oh, sorry. I just got an idea and I had to work on.” She tells him with a sheepish smile as she tucked her journal away. 

“No, it’s fine tess.” Jacob says, giving her a kiss to the head. “I think we're almost there.” 

“Yea, we are. Look, thanks for coming.” Tessa tells him, as she rubbed her inner left forearm. “It really does mean a lot to me.” 

“It’s alright tess.” Jacob tells her, while pulling her into a side hug. “It means a lot to you, doesn’t it.” 

“It does. When Shay disappeared, it was awful. If it wasn’t for mom, I don’t know what I would have done.” Tessa softy admits, as she was still rubbing her forearm. “I was so scared, and hurt. I thought the worst of Shay.” 

“Oh tess.” 

“It’s fine, and I was only ten at the time, remember.” Tessa says with a force smile. 

“How could I forget, we became such fast friends.” 

“That we did. All our teachers hated us. All the pranks, and shit we got into. We were a match made in heaven.” 

“I think our teachers would agree that we were a match made in hell, at the time.” As the pair started to laugh. 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Tessa was glad that the cemetery was empty, when they arrived. She led Jacob to a row that was in the back and close to the woods. They stopped in front of a modest grave, and on it read ‘ _Here lies Shay Patrick Cormac. Beloved son, and brother. May he find peace._ ’ Tessa let out a soft almost bitter sigh, as she pulled something out of her bag, it was a small stuff penguin. 

“He likes penguins.” She tells him placing the penguin on the head stone. “Hey Shay, I know I’m back, and sorry for cutting our meeting short yesterday. It was going to rain and I forgot my raincoat. I know that was dumb of me. But, I also didn’t come alone this year, mom, dad and the others that I tell you about came. In fact, Jacob came with me this time.” She paused, as Jacob gave her a small pat on the back, “Oliver told me that you would love Jacob. And I think he’s right. He makes me happy, and is a great guy. I just wish- Morrigan?” 

“Morrigan?” Jacob repeats with an raised eyebrow, “What the hell is a Morrigan?” 

“Not, a what, a who. Morrigan is the church’s english mastiff.” Tessa tells him pointing to the large dog. The large unhappy looking dog. Morrigan let out a loud bark, which was followed by a growl. “I think she wants me to go with her, can you stay here?”

Jacob bit his bottom lip, as Tessa was looking between him and the dog, “You won’t be long?” 

“I’ll try not to be.” She tells him, giving his check a quick peck, “Morrigan’s a good dog.” 

“Be quick okay?” He asks. 

“I’ll try.” She tells him running over to the dog. Morrigan let out a soft bark, as she led Tessa away from Jacob and Shay’s grave.

Tessa followed Morrigan deep into the old cemetery, far away from the morden and newer to back where the older and more forgotten graves were. There graves here were overgrown with weeds and vines. Morrigan led Tessa, deeper and deeper into the older sections of the cemetery, almost losing her way. Shortly those Morrigan stopped in front of a grave. Tessa knew this grave, it was the oldest one to her knowledge, and it sat near the edge of the woods. Morrigan let out a bark, as Tessa carefully approached the grave, and then it happened. The ground under her boots gave way, and she fell down. Tessa let out a cry of pain as she landed on the lid of a wooden coffin, well fuck. 

End of line 


	6. Chapter 6

Tessa let out a few colorful and choice curse words as she sat on top of the coffin. Nothing felt broken, but her ego, pride and ass were all bruised. 

“Morrigan.” Tessa warned as she placed a hand onto the lid, and then she felt. A cold chill ran up her spine. The dog let out a bark, as Tessa turned her head to the lid. Burnt into the lid was a large black spider, she then looked up to see that Morrigan was gone. 

“Oh fuck you dog!” She yells, as she looked over the lid. Something felt off. Tessa looked over her shoulder to see that she was alone. Taking in a deep and slow breath she drew a circle in mid air, and then she gasped. “No, fucking way.” Tessa was quick to pull a red colored journal from her bag and quickly wrote something down. 

“No, fucking way.” She repeats, as the cold chill had yet to leave her. She figured out why Morrigan needed her. And it wasn’t good. Someone had committed a crime here, and Morrigan wasn’t happy about it. Not that Tessa could blame the dog, it was her job to keep the graveyard safe, and the poor beast had failed. 

“Fuck.” Tessa growls, as she looked at the hole she was in. There was no way for her to climb out of it. Not unless Morrigan went to grab Jacob. She was hoping that was the case, she really hoped that was the case. With nothing else to do, she pulled out her journal and started to draw. Or finish a drawing, she sat down and finished her drawing of the dullahan. The image of the monster had never left her mind. And she was thinking of making this drawing into a painting. Tessa was unsure how much time passed, till she heard,

“TESS!” Jacob yells, out. 

“JACOB DOWN HERE!” Tessa calls putting her journal away. 

“TESSA!” Ziio calls out, “Where are you sweetheart.” 

“Down here!” She yells again. 

“There you are my dear.” Haytham says appearing at the edge of the hole. “I found her. 

“Hi dad.” Tessa greets with a meek wave. 

“Tessa.” Ziio yells stopping next to Haytham, “How the hell did you end up down there?” 

“The ground gave way, while I was checking on Morrigan.” She lies, well half lies. 

“Are you alright tess?” Jacob asks, appearing next to Ziio. 

“Nothing’s broken just a little bruised.” She tells him. 

“How the hell are we going to get you out of there?” Jacob asks her, as Tessa could only grin. 

“Oh that’s easy. Go find the groundskeeper and ask to borrow his ladder.” She explains with a shrug. Jacob nodded his head and was off to find the groundskeeper. 

“Does this happen often?” Haytham asks her with an amused smirk. 

“There’s a lot of old graves back here dad. We can’t be sure which ones might give out or not. So in case something like this does happen he has a ladder.” Tessa explains. “This is not how I pictured spending my day.” 

“Why didn’t you call for help?” Ziio asks, looking over her shoulder for Jacob. 

Tessa could only give a nervous chuckle, “Umm Jacob has my phone. He took it in order to find his way here, since I was busy. Guess I forgot to grab it.” 

“Tessa.” Haytham groans while pitching the bridge of his nose, “We’ve talked about this.” 

“Yes, dad I know. I’m only human after all.” She snaps with a huff. 

“The fact of the matter is, you've done this before.” Haytham reminds her. 

“I'm sorry, I was working on a new drawing.” 

“And there it is. You are far too easily distracted.” 

“I'm not that easily distracted. And I'm sorry that I'm doing something that I love and have a gift for.” Tessa snaps at him, with a touch venom in her voice.

“A talent that you can hardly make a career out of. I will never understand why you won't change majors.”

Tessa grinded her teeth, and bit her lip. “I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm going to school for art. There are plenty of jobs for artists. I don't see you bugging Altair about his job.” 

“That's because he has a stable job with a high end company. Last I checked my dear, you don't have that.” Haytham coldly reminds her. Tessa clenched fists, 

“You know what? I would rather stay in this hole then deal with you.” Tessa says with sneer.

Haytham rolled his eyes, “Don't be ridiculous once Jacob returns your getting out of that hole.” 

“Why are you being an asshole about this? If I was your biological daughter would you be this critical?” Tessa asks, as turning around so her back was to him. By doing so she missed the hurt expression that appeared on Haytham's face.

“Haytham! Tessa! Enough.” Ziio snaps, “We are not having this argument right now.” She warns, narrowing her eyes at the pair. Neither Haytham or Tessa chose to fight Ziio. And thankfully Jacob came back with the ladder. And it took a sharp look from Ziio to get Tessa out of the hole, and after a quick once over, they left. 

“You were far too lucky.” Haytham coldly tells Tessa. Tessa stopped and stood in front of an angel statue, as she quickly dusted herself off, and did a quick bow. 

“I make my own luck.” She coldly tells Haytham as she walks off.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Jacob and Tessa agreed to head back to the inn, they weren’t in the mood to keep exploring. When they got back Oliver was busy checking people, so they waved at him. Tessa stopped in front of the mantel and grabbed a box, and went to the room she was sharing with Jacob. Jacob said he was going to go and check out the lounge, as Tessa gave him a thumbs up. In the room, she opened up the box to see hand made yarn barlects and yarn of all colors. 

“Still not sure how you got this yarn from rumpelstiltskin.” Tessa mutters counting the barlects to see that she was one short. Tessa carefully pulled out, dark blue, light red, and yellow yarn and started to weave them into a bracelet. With the barlect made she put it and the premade ones into her pocket, grabbed her tablet and joined Jacob. 

“So about today.” Tessa says sitting down next to him. Jacob was sitting on, one of the couches watching a bad halloween movie. 

“It’s alright.” Jacob tells her, pulling her into a side hug, “You okay?” 

“Yea, I’m okay. Hey let me see your left wrist.” Tessa asks, pulling out a green, red and silver bracelet from her pocket. 

“What’s that?” He asks, holding out his wrist for her. 

“A gift.” As she tied the bracelet around his wrist, she then kissed it. “There a kiss for good luck.” 

“Don’t you make your own luck?” Jaacob jokes, kissing her. 

“Yea, now we can share in the luck.” She jokes, getting comfy next to him. 

“Thank you tess.” 

“Welcome Jacob.” 

The pair were comfy, as Jacob was watching bad movies, and she was drawing. Well it was half and half. Tessa was half drawing and half watching the movies. The pair were pointing out all the bad ideas that were going on in the movie. 

“And this is why we can’t watch horror movies with the pair.” Desmond comments, as he came in with Lucy, Altair and Malik. 

“Hey, Altair, Malik, Des, Lucy. What’s up.” Tessa asks sitting up and stretching. 

“Nothing, mom sort of called us.” Desmond tells her, rubbing the back of his head. As Tessa narrowed her eyes at him. 

“Don’t do that.” Altair scolds, before sitting next to her. “You okay.” 

“I’m fine just had a little disagreement with dad is all.” Tessa tells him with an eye roll, “It’s fine really.” 

“You sure?” Malik asks as Tessa rubbed her forearm. 

“It’s legit not a big deal. Dad was being an asshole, nothing new.” Tessa mutters, as she pulls out four bracelets from her pocket. “I got something for you guys.” 

“Funny Lucy got something for you.” Desmond says with a smile. 

“I hope you like it.” Lucy pulling out a box from her jacket pocket. 

“Thank you.” Tessa taking the box, and handing her Desmond a bracelet. The box was a set of very nice looking pastels, Tessa's eyes went wide with fright. She dropped the box, and walked out. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Lucy asks, giving Desmond a confused look. 

“Not sure.” Desmond says confused, as he looked at Altair, who gave a shrug. Even Jacob looked confused but knew better than to push the topic. 

“She’s never like pastels.” Altair says looking down at his bracelet it was red, white and gold yarn, while the one that Malik had was black, white and red. 

“Never?” Lucy asks him. 

“We don’t get it either.” Altair simply says helping Malik tie the bracelet on his wrist. Malik gave Altair a pointed look and then a hard jab to the side. Altair hissed, and rubbed his side.

“Fine, fine, fine.” Altair says getting up and grabbing the tablet, “I'll go check on her.” 

“Thank you.” Malik says with a sly smirk.

End of line 


	7. Chapter 7

It didn’t take Altair long to find Tessa. She was with Oilver who was cooking. Tessa was sitting on the counter behind Oliver who was stirring a big pot on the stove that was in the middle of the kitchen. He was hoovering in the doorway, unsure if he should enter. Altair was unsure how he felt about Oliver.

“Do you want a cup?” Oliver asks, as he picks up a mug, and fills it with a brown liquid. 

“Nothing better than homemade beef broth.” Tessa comments, taking the cup. 

“So what’s wrong?” Oliver asks, starting to hum. 

Tessa let out a deep sigh, as she took a sip from the cup, “Lucy got me a gift.” 

“Oh the horror.” Oliver jokes, as Tessa let out a soft growl, “Aww I see you got you something that brought back bad memories.” 

“Yea.” Tessa whispers, as her shoulders slumped as she drank the broth, “I didn’t say anything, I just got up and left.” 

“Rude.” 

“I know.” 

“I just- fuck. Why does everything have to come back to Shay.” Tessa hisses as sat the cup down, with a touch more force, some of the broth spilled out of the cup and out to the counter. “I want to stop feeling guilty.” 

“You have nothing to feel guilty about. You did nothing wrong.” Oliver gently counters. 

“I feel like I did. Shay’s gone all because of me.” 

“Tessa, I don’t know how many times we’ve told you. But, you are not to blame for that.” Oliver tells her. It was then that Altiar came in, he gave the pair a worried look. 

“Are you alright Tessa?” He asks as she lets out a sigh and she quickly downed the rest of the broth. 

“Fine.” She says with a touch too much bite, “I think granny said she made something about macarons. I’m going to buy some.” 

“Be back before dinner, I made beef stew with dumplings.” Oliver calls out, as Tessa gives him a thumbs up. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Altair asks as he leaned against the counter top. 

“What makes you think that?” Oliver asks, handing him a cup of beef broth to try. 

“She left as soon as I got here.” He says taking a sip of the broth. And Altair smirked, the broth was damn good.

“She did, didn’t she.” Oliver says, as he took in a deep breath, “You see, some wounds take a long time to heal properly. They may heal over time and then scar over. But some scars don't fade away. The wound on Tessa's heart is like this. The wound has scared over and healed. But it hasn't faded away, only time will help it. And in time she will let go of her past and of Shay. She does love you.” 

“What are you getting at?” 

“Time and space. Give her some time and space. It’s been close to ten years since Shay died.” Oliver tells him, “Ten years since he was killed.” 

“Tens years for the wound to heal. I don’t think I can understand the pain she must still be feeling.” Altair says, as Oliver eyed him, “But, I can try to.” 

“That is all I ask.” Oliver tells him.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Tessa was picking at her stew, as she looked at Oliver. Something wasn’t right. A feel of dread had settled in the pit of her stomach. 

“ _Et Homine seu Gist non vidi, cum me pervenit. Qui sunt bene!_ (I haven't seen Monro or Gist, since I arrived. Are they okay?)” Tessa asks him. 

“ _Quae nunc commemorare non vidi in paucis diebus. Non quasi nihilum et ad alterum. Dico Monro ne exeatis._ (Now that you mention, I haven’t seen them in a few days. It’s not like either of them to up and vanish. I mean, Monro can’t leave town.)” Oliver tells her. 

“ _Et non cogitant quod factum est ad eos faciam vobis?_ (You don’t think something happened to them do you?)” She asks as she tapping her spoon against her bowl. 

Oliver let out a chuckle, “ _Et Homine est, et Gist, duorum spirituum vetustissima sunt in oppidum. Qui est in dextera esset mens ire post eos. Et amen dico vobis, qui aliquem qui insanus stupri._ (It’s Monro and Gist, the two oldest spirits in town. Who in there right mind would go after them. I’ll tell you who, someone who is fucking crazy.)” Lucy paused and cased a glare at Oliver but said nothing. 

Tessa narrowed her eyes at him, “ _Adhuc viveret aut superbiae vitio caeli et mortuus est._ (Hubris is still flaw weather you be alive or dead.)” 

“ _Quod dabo tibi. Et quid suus 'iniuriam, fuerunt in te ora omnium post meridiem. Vestri 'VK non fero etiam per donum dedit predicte Lucie es tu?_ (I will give you that. But what’s wrong, you’ve been on edge all afternoon. You're still not upset over the gift Lucy gave you are you?)” He asks. 

“ _Non ego inventum quod in loco sepulchri. EGO could utor auxilium tuum. Mens post me venire ad prandium!_ (No, I found something at the graveyard. I could use your help. Mind coming with me after dinner?)” She asks, still tapping her spoon.

“ _Certe ego non video cur non. Melius est nobis ut switch Latina Fecimus igitur magis rude est._ (Sure, I don’t see why not. We better switch back to English, we’ve been rather rude.)” Oliver tells her with a wink. 

Tessa winced hard, _“Sed dextera tua._ (Yea, your right.)” 

“Of course I’m right. When I am ever wrong?” Oliver asks with a smirk. 

“I can think of a few times.” Tessa points out with a smile. 

“What were you two talking about?” Ziio asks, looking between the two. 

“Nothing serious mom. Oliver was just asking me to join him for a walk after dinner and that he was going to commission me for a painting.” Tessa says starting to eat. 

“The wall behind the check in desk is in dire need of something. And I was hoping Tessa could make something.” Oliver explains. 

“That’s very kind of you Oliver.” Haytham says which earned him an eye roll from Tessa. 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“And Morrigan showed you this. Fuck a duck.” Oliver mutters rubbing his chain, “Are you sure this is Monro grave.” 

Tessa crossed her arms over her chest, “Yes, I’m sure this is his grave.” As she gestured to the headstone. 

“Alright, just making sure is all. Crap. Who the fuck would grave rob?” Oliver asks as he looks at the spider. 

“Someone who is either very dumb, or very brave. Given how old Morrigan is.” Tessa points out. 

“True, very true. Morrigan isn’t going to let this slide. She is going to find out who did this.” Oliver mutters as his tone got dark, “And they aren’t leaving this town alive or in one piece.” 

“I don’t know if this is related or not. But, on the first night we arrived, I got up to take a walk and found a headless dullahan.” Tessa tells him looking over her shoulder. 

“Aren’t dullahan by there very nature headless?” Oliver points out. 

“I mean that I didn’t see it’s head anywhere. A dullahan will always have it’s head on them.” She says quickly.

“Well that is very odd. This whole thing seems odd, we need to find who did this and fast. Someone is not going to make it out this town alive.” 

“You just said that.” Tessa points outs. 

“I know, I did.” Oliver tells her rubbing a hand over his face. “It’s the truth.”

“A dark one.” 

End of line 


	8. Chapter 8

There were a few things in the morning that Jacob loved. One of them was the rare chance that he would wake up before Tessa. His caring sparrow was sprawled face down in the bed. On the nightstand was her journal with a rough sketch of her commission for Oilver, along with notes. Jacob smirked as he leaned down and gave Tessa a kiss. He would make sure that he saved her a plate. 

Tessa cracked open one eye and yawned, and smiled. She stretched out like a cat, and hid her head under the pillow. And she was eager to try and get some more sleep, when she felt a cold chill run down her spine. Tessa let out a huff, as she rolled over, and saw it. On the bedpost was a large black spider with gold threads running down it’s legs. 

“Well hello there.” Tessa with a scoff and an eye roll, “So I see that your master has been busy.” The spider didn’t say anything as Tessa let out a huff. She simply drew a red circle in the air, flicked the circle at the spider. The moment circle hit the spider, the spider dissolved into a pile of ash. 

“Tough shit, bitch.” Tessa mutters stretching her arms upwards. “Guess, I’m not going back to sleep.” As she pulled the covers off and got out of bed. 

After her shower, Tessa pulled her hair up and saw it. A long silver streak started at the base of her head and ran down to the ends of her hair. Tessa rolled her eyes and picked up a pair of scissors and cut the silver streak out of her and dropped it in the sink. She drew a red circle and flicked it at the silver streak, the streak burned into a pile of ashes. She hated the streak, it was a sign that she had been touched by an avatar of death. Which was annoying, and in three days the streak would be back. With that said and done she headed down to get some food. 

“Good morning my sweet sparrow.” Jacob greets handing Tessa a cup of coffee. 

“And a good morning to you my cunning rook.” Tessa greets taking the cup, “And thank you for saving me a plate.” 

“Your welcome.” Jacob grins as he quickly steals a kiss. Lucy was sitting next to Desmond and giving Tessa an odd look. But chose not to say anything. 

“Good morning Tessa.” Oliver greets cheerfully, as he comes over with a tin. “Oliva was by this morning and dropped off this tin of molasses cookies. She wanted to give them to you, herself. But, you were still asleep.” 

“Oh that’s fine.” Tessa says taking the cookies, she popped open the lid and took in the sweet smell of fresh baked cookies. “I think I can forgive her.” She says with a chuckle. 

“I’m so glad that you can.” Oliver tells her with a wink. Behind Oliver, Tessa saw a sad looking woman. She had ocean blue eyes, and soft blonde hair. Her bottom lip was split, and her left eye was black, and her wrist was in a splint. The woman looked sad, and was sitting next to a man. And he was snapping his fingers, trying to get Oliver’s attention. Oliver rolled his eyes, and slid a piece of paper towards Tessa, and then walked off. 

“Asshole.” Tessa says under her breath, Tessa looked at the paper and her eyes went wide. She looked at the woman and then at the man. She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. 

Tessa snaps her fingers, “Hey, Connor, Altair, Ezio and Leo. Can you join me in the lounge after breakfast? I need your help with my drawing.” The four of them nodded there heads, and said yes. Tessa grinned, as finished up her food, before grabbing a cookie. She then straddled Jacob’s waist. 

“Thank you for not asking me to model for you.” Jacob says, placing his hands on Tessa's waist. 

“I know how you are.” Tessa tells him with a wink as she put the cookie in her mouth, “I can’t say how long I’ll be.” 

“Don’t worry, me, Evie and Greenie are going to the museum.” Jacob tells her as he leaned in and bite the cookie in half.

“You’re going to a museum, I perish the thought.” Tessa jokes as she swallows the other half of the cookie. 

“I’m sure it will be fun.” 

“You would be right.” 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Alright, Ezio, you lay there on the ground, one hand bracing yourself as the other covering your eyes, yes very good. Leo I need you standing on the chair, behind on Connor. Connor, I need you to raise your right hand arm like you're about to swing a wip, Altair stand there and cover your ears. Leo I need to open your mouth as if you're about to scream. Yes, that is perfect.” Tessa instructs, as she sits herself down in front of her canvas. Her canvas that was turned sideways.

“Tessa, how long are you going to be?” Connor asks, as she picks up her charcoal pencil. 

“As long as it takes.” She snipply tells him, as she starts to draw her models. 

“Now doesn’t this look fascinating.” Haytham comments walking into the lounge. “And what lovely set of models.” Tessa was ignoring him as she drew. “Ignoring me my dear?” As he sat down next to her. 

“No, dad just trying to work on drawing everyone.” She tells him, as the drawing she was making started to look like the images in her head.

Haytham didn’t say anything right away, “May I ask what your drawing is?” 

“A dullahan and banshee, Connor and Leo are taking the place of the spirits, and Ezio and Altair are there victims. Or would be victims. As everyone knows that these spirits don’t kill.” Tessa explains, as one of the figures was starting to look like a young woman. 

“I didn’t know that. Mind explaining to me.” Haytham asks with a smile on his face. 

At that Tessa turned to look at him, with a very confused look, “Do you really want me to info dump on you? I know I can be very annoying when I do. I don’t want to bore you.” She says working on the dullahan. 

“I am sure.” Haytham urges, with a gentle nudge. 

Tessa bite her bottom lip, “So a banshee she is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by wailing, shrieking, or keening. And kneeing is a wailing lament for the dead. So some folklorists think that the idea of the banshee came from the idea of these women who would wander Irelend and preform keening, and only these rich families could afford them. There is also this idea, that when people were living out in the wilderness and heard owls screeching they would think hey it’s a banshee and then someone died. I find that idea to be the most interesting.” 

“How come?” 

“Well it means that we have humans associated an animal with death. Most things in folklore are associated with animals in some ways. Take the selkie for example. In the sea they are seals, but when they come ashore they peel off there skin and become a beautiful young woman or man. And it’s said that male selkies can get a barren woman knocked up.” As Tessa was now focusing on the victims. 

“Would about the female selkie?” Ezio asks her. 

“I would rather not get into how badly they are mistreated, if you don’t mind.” As Tessa had to hide her wince, and in walled Olvier. He didn’t say anything as he dropped a bag and a knife, the bag was dropped to the floor and the knife was placed on the table. He gave Tessa a nod as he left.

“I think we got off topic. What about this dullahan.” Haytham asks her. 

“Oh the dullahan, are headless beings, and wherever one stops, a mortal's death soon follows. A dullahan will stop its snorting horse before the door of a house and shout the name of the person about to die, drawing forth the soul at the call. He may also stop at the very spot where a person will die. And if you see one it will throw a bucket of blood on you or whip one of your eyes out.” Tessa explains, as she was working on the dullahan whip. 

“Why is the whip a human spine?” Haytham asks with a sour expression. 

“No idea.” Tessa says with a half shrug. “It’s just one of those things.” 

“It’s rather guresmone.” 

“Eh, the dullahan is said to carry it's served with it. Weather its hand or in a saddle bag.” 

“Why?” 

“The Irish believe that is where the soul is. And for a time there was a thing called a head bounty. Where you could get paid for collecting heads.” 

“Tessa, how the hell do you know this?” Altair asks, very concerned. 

“I like to read.” She tells him, adding details to the whip.

“Maybe read a little less.” Leo suggests, “As interesting as that all was.” 

“Yea, sorry.” Tessa mutters as she adds some details to the background and foreground. And that was when Haytham nocied a circle in the middle of the canvas. 

“What is that for?” 

“Oh that? It’s for when I paint the moon in. I can paint over it and peel it off and the spot where it was, will still be white.” She explains. 

“Clever.” Haytham says. 

“Thanks, and I hate to say it. But, you are right about the phone thing. I do need keep better track of it.” Tessa admits.

“And I’m sorry for what I said. I was a little stressed that my only daughter found her way into an open grave.” 

“Yea, sorry about that.” Tessa says with a wince. She still needed to talk to morrigan about that. 

“It’s alright. We both said things that we shouldn't have said.” 

“That is very ture.” 

“Excuse me.” A meek female voice says, it was the woman from breakfast. 

“Yes, hello.” Haytham greets warmly, “Can we help you.” 

“Umm yes, I was told I could find something of mine here.” She says rubbing her hurt wrist. 

“Oh, yes you can. Take five guys.” Tessa says standing and stretching, as she picked up the bag. “I believe this yours.” As she handed the woman the bag. 

The woman’s eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped, “Is that?” 

“It is. You're free to leave now.” Tessa tells her, as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a card, “And if you need a lawyer my dad is one.” 

“You-you didn’t have to do this.” The woman says taking the bag. 

“I know, but it’s right. You were forced into this. Take the bag and leave. Don’t worry about him.” Tessa urges. The woman nodded and pulled Tessa’s hand and put something in it and left. 

“Tessa, what was that about?” Connor asks as Tessa opens her hand to see an oyster.

“Don’t worry about it Connor, don't worry about it.” Tessa says tapping the top shell of the oyster.

End of line 


	9. Chapter 9

Tessa was struggling to open the oyster. Why were oysters so damn hard to open? Connor let out a chuckle, as he healed out his hand. 

“Want me to open it?” He asks, as Tessa scowled at him. 

“No, I will open this damn oyster. And I will get the delicious meat inside.” Tessa grunts.

“I thought you hated oyster meat?” Ezio asks, as Tessa scowled. 

“I do, but someone else might want it. There might be a pearl inside. And I want that.” She explains. 

“How do you know there is a pearl inside?” Altair asks, sharing a look with Haytham.

“I have a good feeling is all.” Tessa tells him, with a smile. 

“WHERE IS SHE!” Someone yells, before anyone could react the door to the lounge opened with a bang. The man from breakfast came stomping in and grabbed Tessa by the front of her shirt. Tessa let out a squeak of shock, as she dropped the knife and oyster. 

“Where is who?” She asks, not liking how the man had picked her up off the floor with ease. Tessa scowled. Well that explained how he got his _‘wife’_. 

The man let out a growl, “You know who I’m talking about.” As he shakes Tessa. 

“Sir, if you would be so kind as to put my daughter down.” Haytham warns the man. Altair and Connor were making ready to get up and attack the man. Tessa mouthed a quick _No_ , as she locked eyes with the man.

Tessa smirked, “It’s fine dad. We all know that this asshat has a small cock. And he is only putting this show and dance on due to it.” 

“TESSA!” Haytham snaps, as Altair, Connor, Ezio and Leo let out a chuckle. 

“You little bitch.” The man growls, he pulls one hand back ready to punch. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Tessa says in a sign song voice, and wagging her finger at him. 

“Why the fuck shouldn’t I?” He asks. 

“My dad’s a lawyer and I got plenty of witnesses.” Tessa smirks, as the man let out a growl, but set Tessa down. “Why thank you.”As she picked up the knife and oyster. 

“Where is my wife?” The man growls as Tessa sinks the knife tip into the oyster. 

“You mean your ex-wife? Probably halfway home by now. And before you even say anything I know what you did to her.” Tessa says, narrowing her eyes, as she moves to open the oyster. 

“What the hell are you talking about.” The growls. 

“Let me see,” As she moved the tip of the knife and taped it against her forehead, before going back to opening her prize, “You kidnapped her, stole her coat, beat her. And don’t think I didn’t see the broken wrist and bruises, you would have to be pretty dumb not to figure that out. And you sexually assaulted her.” 

The man gave Tessa a weary look, “You cunt you know what she is don’t you.” 

“Yup.” Tessa says popping the _P_ as she spoke. “You're not going to get her back.” 

“And how do you know that? I can just track her down.” The man says with a shit eating grin. 

Tessa gave him a half hearted shrug, “I know a lot of things. And good chuck of them aren’t good. But, I can tell you this. IF she was smart, she will file a lawsuit against you. And she will tack on stalking.” 

“A little bitch like you don’t know jack shit.” The man growls, as he takes a step towards her. 

“Sadly I know more then you will know.” Tessa mutters as she cracks open the oyster with a smile. “Just leave her alone.” 

“Is that a threat?” 

Tessa let out a sigh, as she looked at the knife, and then let out a second sigh. “You're not going to make this easy are you?” 

“No.” The man sneers. 

“Thought so.” As set the oyster down. She then flipped the knife around, as she took one big step back. “Alright.” As she threw the knife, the knife grazed the man on the check, before it hit the wall. 

“You little bitch.” The man growled as the cut started to bleed. 

“Damn I missed.” Tessa mutters, picking up the oyster, as she opened it, with a smile. “Do you get my point?” 

The man growled but said nothing else, “Good, there are a few myths that involve the ex-husband getting killed or the ex-wife family put a curse on him.” 

“Bitch.” 

“Asshole.” Tessa spites back leaving the room, “You guys are free to go, I’m done working on the painting for today.” 

End of line 


	10. Chapter 10

Tessa was kneeling at the entrance to the woods. It was the same path she went down, every time she visited Gist. The woods felt off, as if there was a dark presence in it. Next to Tessa was a chestnut cleveland bay. The horse mane was yellow, mixed with orange and red, and the horse's tail matched the mane. The saddle was well worn with the initials ' _C.G.'_ stitched onto it. The horse nuzzled Tessa's shoulder, as she took in a deep breath. Someone was fucking with Tessa's home and she wasn't happy. She was hoping to whatever God there was, that Gist was okay. Tessa couldn't help but let her mind wander to her past.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

_Monro sat next to Tessa, the six year old was trying to cast a simple fire spell. Gist had sent up a small campfire, for Tessa to light. And it wasn't going well. She had spent the last hour trying to cast the spell._

_'Why is it hard?' Tessa asks drawing a circle and it just fizzled and died._

_'Magic isn't easy my sweet. I have confidence you can do it.' Monro tells her, as Tessa pouted._

_'Shay and Oliver mastered this spell within a week. And it's almost been a month.' Tessa whines with a pout._

_Monor let out a soft chuckle as patted the girl on the head. 'I understand your frustration but, you must not compare yourself to Shay and Oliver. You will master this spell and many more to come.'_

_'You think so?' Tessa asks with a bright smile on her face._

_'I do, now try once more.' Monor encourages. Tessa took in a deep breath as she drew a bright red circle, it didn't fizzle out like the last one. With a bright smile, she flicked the circle into the fire pit. And the wood was set ablaze._

_'MONOR I DID IT! Tessa cheers._

_'Yes, yes you did my sweet.'_

_'What's all the yelling about?' Shay asks, strolling over._

_'I did it Shay. I casted my first spell!' Tessa cheerfully tells him._

_'You did? That's amazing Tessa.' Shay praises with a smile._

_'I wonder what spell Gist will teach me next.' Tessa asks looking at Monor and Shay._

_'I was thinking ice. Can't learn fire, without learning ice.' Shay tells her._

_'I would love that Shay.'_

_*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************_

_It was a brisk summer evening, as Tessa was happily sitting on Monro lap. Tessa was humming as she watched Gist. Gist was training fourteen year old Shay and Oliver. As the six year was playing with a small orb of light._

_‘Hey Monro?’ Tessa asks, shrinking the orb._

_‘Yes, my dear?’ He asks, watching Shay cast a perfect ice spell, freezing Oliver._

_‘Your not going to leave are you?’ She asks, watching the orb grow twice its original size._

_‘What do you mean my dear?’ Monro asks confused, as he gives her head a soft pat._

_‘Well, leave, leave.’ Tessa asks him, ‘You're not going to leave the town are you?’_

_‘Of course not my sweet.’ Monro asks her, ‘Where is this coming from?’_

_‘Ma, was talking to pa, one of there friends passed on. And it got me thinking.’ She clarifies to him, sounding sad._

_‘Oh my dear.’ He coos hugging her from behind, ‘No, no, no. I will never leave you, Shay or Oliver. It’s not like I can.’ He mutters, as Oliver was able to pin Shay._

_Tessa cocked her to the side in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’_

_‘It’s a long story my dear. One I will happily tell you when you are older.’ Monro states._

_Tessa pouted, ‘Fine, keep your secrets.’_

_‘I plan to.’ Monro says with a chuckle._

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The horse nuzzled Tessa’s shoulder, as she scratched the horse’s snout. 

“I know, Lantern, I know.” Tessa says with a sigh, “The woods don’t feel right.” In front of her were a series of thick and sticky looking spider webs. Lantern let out a snort, as Tessa stood and dusted the dirt off her pants. 

“I hate dealing with foul magic.” Tessa mutters reaching into Lantern's saddle bag, and pulling out a bat, which was a wonderful gift from Gist. It was made from ironwood with celtic symbols engraved into the wood, and there was a fine coating of iron embedded into each symbol. Tessa smirked as she pulled out two baseballs. 

“Tessa there you are my dear.” Haytham calls out, as Tessa looks over shoulder. 

“Hey, dad, Connor, Altair, Mailk.” Carefully she set the bat down, as she turned to face them, “What are you doing here.” 

“Dad was worried, that guy from the inn followed you.” Altair tells her. Tessa let out a huh as she bited her index finger hard enough to draw blood. 

“What are you doing?” Connor asks, as Tessa starts to write on the baseball using her blood. 

“Oh, this it’s nothing.” As she tossed the first ball up and into the air, and repeated the process on the second ball, before catching the first one. She tucked the first ball into her hoodie pocket, as she was playing with the ball.

“It wouldn’t be nothing, but you did it a second time.” Malik points, as Tessa licked her finger. Tessa chose not to answer Malik, as she looked at the cut.

“Why does blood taste like copper I wonder.” Tessa hums as she turns around, facing the woods. 

“Blood is rich in iron, which is why it causes a metallic taste in your mouth.” Haytham tells her. 

“Huh okay.” Tessa was tossing the ball up and down, “I do wonder Lantern who thought this would be a good idea. Using there magic, to try and keep me out.” Lantern let out an angry snort. “Oh, I know you're very right about that. I’m sure Gist is going to be very mad. But, first we should really clear out these nasty, horrible, disgusting spiders. They have no place in the natural order of things.” Lantern let out a whine, “No, no, no, I can handle it. I just need you to go get dear Morrigan. I have a feeling, were going to need her.” Lantern nodded her head yes, and trotted away. 

“What kind of horse is that? And you can understand it!?” Haytham asks, shocked. 

“Cleveland bay.” Tessa simply says using her free hand, to draw a red circle in the air, and launches the ball through the circle and into the woods, the ball bounced and rolled setting the webs on fire, “Burn bitches burn.” Tessa growls picking up her bat and walking into the woods. “Time to get rid of some unwanted company.” Haytham, Connor, Altair, Mailk, stood there watching her. 

“You guys coming?” Tessa calls from over her shoulder, as she starts to hum. The woods didn’t feel safe, something was off. There was a dark and eerie feeling that clung to the woods. And an awful smell filled the air, it smelled like burnt and rooting cheese, and burned wine. And it wasn’t just the newly burned spiders and webs, there was something else, something else was hunting the woods. Tessa let out a soft hum, as she poked one of the spiders with her bat. 

“Whoever made you had quite a bit of time on there hands.” Tessa mutters noting the gold lines on its body. 

“Tessa what the hell is going?” Connor asks as could only shrug. 

“To be honest, your guess is as good as mine. Someone is fucking with the natural order here.” She tells with a sigh, and huff.

“Natural order?” Haytham asks, as Tessa nodded her head yes 

“Gist and Monro call the woods home, and keep the town safe. I think whoever made these spiders has taken them and the dullahan out of the picture.” She explains. 

“What dullahan?” Altair asks, Tessa was ready to answer, when they heard something. It wasn’t a sound an animal or human would make, it was inhuman. The sound was that of an inhuman horse, and howling.

“That dullahan, and I think you should run in that general direction.” Tessa says, tossing her bat to Connor, as she pulled off her ring. “Here, you're going to need this.” As she handed the ring to Haytham, as she sat down. 

“Tessa what the hell are you doing?” Haytham growls at her. 

“Dullahans are repealed by gold, any amount of gold will do.” Tessa matter of factly tells them, “I’m wearing a gold cross and gold earrings, the loss of one ring won’t kill me.” 

“Are you going to be okay?” Altair asks her, as Tessa nodded her head. 

“Gist glade is that way, he’ll know what to do.” She tells him, as the sound gets closer. Tessa smirked as she played with her cross. Tessa knew she was going to have to explain everything to her dad and brothers, she knew that. But, right now she had to deal with a dullahan. The dullahan neared, and then Tessa’s heart stopped and her eyes went wide. She let out a scream, as a sword came out of nowhere. 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Dad this is crazy.” Altair states as they run from the dullahan. 

“We don’t have much choice do we?” Haytham asks, as they came to something. It was a large open area, with paper lanterns hanging from the trees. And in the middle of the area was a large black spider with gold lines, running through its body. 

End of line 


	11. Chapter 11

The spider was as large as the glade it was in. It was pitch black with gold stripes, with glowing gold eyes. The spider was eyeing Haytham, Connor, Altair and Mailk with hunger.

“What the fuck do we do?” Connor asks, he was frantically looking for a way out.

“I'm not sure.” Haytham tells his son. It seemed that they were out of luck. Or so they thought. As out of nowhere, Morrigan came to there aid sort of. The large dog was standing in front of them, and started to growl. The spider didn't seem fazed right away, but it did back up a little bit. 

“Thank fuck, your here Morrigan.” Tessa gasps, as she holds her hand to the wound on her upper right arm. 

“Tessa! What the hell happened to your arm?” Malik asks, seeing as blood was dripping from her fingertips and making a small puddle on the ground.

“Not now,” Tessa snaps as she looks at Morrigan, “Morrigan if you kill this spider I will give you a nice big fat elk bone, and my own blood.” She removed her hand from the wound, and offered it to the dog. Morrigan licked her lips as Tessa came over to the dog and Morrigan licked the blood clean off her hand. 

Morrigan let out an inhuman laugh, as the glade went deadly silent. The glade was instead filled with the sound of bones, cracking and snapping back together. Morrigan fur split apart and she grew. She grew and grew till she was larger than the spider. The hound was now massive, with pitch black fur, with a silver stripe that started from her nose and ended at her tail. Her body was printed with silver stars and her eyes were blood red and her claws were long and sharp. 

“Your master has no idea what they are going against do they?” Tessa asks the spider, but the spider didn’t answer, “I became friends with things that would make your master’s hair go white. Morrigan is the oldest church grimm on the east coast. And she is going to kill you now.” 

“T-t--t-t-Tessa what is that thing?” Altair asks, shrinking back in fright. 

“A church grim.” Tessa snaps as she struggles to get out of her hoodie. It was a hassle the fabric was sticking to her skin, thanks to the blood. With the hoodie off, Tessa could see the wound. It was a long gash that was still slowly bleeding but nothing too bad. And the slash was just under the tattoo. Morrigan wasted no time in bringing down her front paw and squished the spider under it, the spider poofed out of sight. Morrigan shrank down to a normal dog size but was still pitch black, 

“Morrigan could you please find Gist for me?” Tessa asks the dog, who let out a bark. She quickly rushed around the glade bumping into the trees and lighting the paper lanterns. “That should help.” She mutters trying to lift her right arm, to draw a circle. She winced hard and focused using her left arm. She quickly shed the greenery around them, to reveal shelves chalk full of jars, bottles and books. And in the middle of the glade was a fire pit with logs around it, she lit the fire pit, and placed a large tea kettle, and made sure everything was set. 

“Tessa.” Haytham says as she folded the hoodies up and placed it on the log, and placed her bag next to it. 

“Yes, dad?” Tessa asks, sitting down, as she tries to look at the wound. 

“What the hell is going on?” He snaps as she gives a blank stare. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” She tells him, as she stands, and walks over to one of the shelves, “Let’s see we have chamomile tea, peppermint tea, ginger tea, hibiscus tea, echinacea tea, rooibos tea, sage tea, lemon balm tea, and elderberry tea it is.” She says plucking a box off the shelves and a porcelain teapot. 

“Tessa.” Haytham warns, as she sat down and got to work putting the loose leaves into the teapot. 

“Yes, dad?” She asks setting the pot down right as Morrigan comes over looking happy as a pig in shit. She sat down next to Tessa on the log, and let out a bark. “Hello Morrigan, you found Gist. Good on you.” As she started to dig through her bag and pull out a tin, and a big bone. “Payment for your help.” 

Morrigan sniffed the wound on her arm, and gave it a lick. Tessa went stiff as a board, “Really?” She asks, putting the bone down. Morrigan didn’t say anything as she licked the wound clean, getting rid of the blood that had collected. 

“Hello everyone.” Gist cheerfully greets, as Tessa gave him an unamused look. “I see our dear Morrigan is in a mood today.” 

“She’s been in a mood for a while.” Tessa states once the dog was done, she jumped off the log and went to chew on her bone. Gist spied Haytham and gave him a small wave, before looking at Tessa. 

“My dear what happened?” Gist asks, looking at Tessa’s wound. 

“I got hurt.” She bluntly tells him. 

“By who?” Gist asks, looking at the gash. 

Tessa bit her bottom lip, “You're not going to like my answer.” She tells him. 

“I doubt I will.” He agrees with a hum. 

“It was colonel George Monro.” Gist’s jaw dropped and Morrgian looked at her in shock. 

End of line 


	12. Chapter 12

The glade was quiet. Gist could only stare at Tessa, who was staring intensely at the fire. Even Morrgian was quiet, as she looked at her bone, and then Tessa. 

“My dear, are you lying?” Gist asks her, “No, you would never do that. Monor would never do something like that.” 

“I don't think he meant to do it. There was a spider on his chest.” Tessa quickly tells him.

Gist let out a breath, “Damnit, whoever is doing this, is trying to hurt the town.” He growls going over to the shelves. 

“What is he talking about?” Connor asks Tessa who was trying to look at her wound. 

“It’s a little confusing.” She tells him, as the kettle starts to whistle, “But, it goes back to the American Revolution.” She says while carefully pouring the water into the smaller teapot. “Tea?” 

“Thank you.” Everyone says take a cup with fresh tea. 

“Now my dear, I think it's story time.” Gist says coming back over with salve and bandages. 

“Do I need to tell it? Can’t you?” She asks sipping her tea, Gist gives her a pointed look, as scooped up the slave. “Right. Alright so back during the American Revolution there was a man named Colonel George Monro, Monro served with the British and was fighting in a battle close to town. Don’t ask me the name of the battle, I think it was some random one. During the battle a stray cannonball struck Monro and knocked his head- fuck Gist that stings.” Tessa whines as he applies the salve onto the open wound. 

“As Tessa was saying Monro 's head was knocked clean off, killing him. He was buried in the back of the church and became a ghost. As a ghost he swore to protect the town from everything and anything.” Gist explains rubbing the salve in, “This doesn’t look as bad as it could have been. Seems that good old Monro wasn’t trying to kill you.” 

“Tessa, there’s more, isn't there?” Haytham asks her, as Tessa was looking down at her tea. 

“When we arrived at town, Morrgian showed me Monro’s grave. Someone did something awful to it.” She softly tells him, as she looked to Gist who had a look of horror and shock on his face. 

“Please tell me they didn’t?” As he bandaged up her wound. 

“They did.” Tessa answers him. “When I fell into Monro’s grave there was something wrong with his coffin. Burnt onto the lid was a spider, and when I checked on his bones, someone stole one of his hands.” Morrgian let out a growl as she snapped the bone in half. 

“Why is she mad?” Malik asks, watching the dog, as he moves closer to Altair. 

“Morrgian is a church grim, it’s her duty to keep the church safe from grave robbers. She failed.” Tessa quickly explains to him.

Gist let out a hum as stroked his chain, “You said that they stole one of Monro’s hands. I think I know the spell this person is using.” 

“That’s great!” Tessa happily says with a smile, “That means we can fix Monro and find out who did this.” 

“I wouldn’t sound too happy just yet, my sweet. You see the counterspell requires a sacrifice. And no it’s a not one made of flesh and blood. Since the spell requires a piece of the person you wish to control. To get the piece you need, from the person you wish to control, it can be done unwillingly. In order to perform the counterspell a person must willingly give up something that they deeply love.” He explains looking at the hoodie, as Tessa looked to Gist then to her hoodie. 

“NO!” She yells jumping up spilling her tea, “There is no way in hell you're going to do that.” 

“My dear see reason.” Gist says gently. 

“I can’t!” Tessa yells at him, “This is one the last few things I have of Shay. I can’t give this up.” 

Gist let out a sigh, “I know it’s hard my dear. But, if the roles were reserved you bet that Monro would give up something of his for you, Shay or Oliver. You know he loves you very much.” 

“I know,” She says snapping at him, Tessa took in a deep breath as her hand went to the belt buckle. “If I give you the hoodies, I’ll lose another piece of Shay. And another part of myself.” 

“I doubt that very much. You still have your memories and the buckle, unless.” Gist asks with a devilish smile on his face, “You know something.” 

Tessa went as stiff as a board, Gist saw this as his chance. He walked up behind Tessa. He placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and dug his nails into her shoulders, his hat dipped down low to cover half of his face. “I know nothing.” She spites out, trying to get out his hold. 

A smirk appeared on the old ghost’s face, “I know you know something. And has to do with the dullahan. Who we also need to take care of don’t we.” 

“The dullahan is missing it’s head.” Tessa points out with a huff. 

“Isn’t that the point of the dullahan?” Altair asks her, as Tessa gives him a sour look. 

“No, you missed the point completely it seems. A dullahan will carry there head in there hand or in a saddle bag. This one has been missing there head for some time. The first night we were here, I saw it. And I saw that it was missing its head.” Tessa explains, with a bitter sigh. 

“Whoever cast the spell on our dear Monro, is also holding the dullahan hostage?” Gist asks sinking his nails deeper into her shoulders, “Speck the true name of the dullahan.” 

Tessa shook her head, “I don’t know the ghost’s true name. And a dullahan is an avatar of death, whoever is doing this is messing with the order of the world.” She tells him, “We need to find it’s head.” 

“We can’t find out who has his head, till you speak his true name.” Gist warns with a dark tone in his voice, “Are you afraid to admit who the spirit is?” 

“I can’t admit it. I just can’t, please don’t make me.” She pleads with him. 

“The sooner you do, the easier it will be.” Gist tells her, as his nails dug deep enough to draw blood. 

“I can’t.” She whispers feeling tears start to well up in her eyes. 

“It’s the dullahan’s fault that you got hurt. You saw it, you saw who he really is. Speck his name and lift the weight.” Gist tells her. 

“Where the fuck is my shoudler angel?” She snaps at him, trying to get out his hold. 

“Your shoulder angel is currently under a mind control spell. And if he wasn’t he would agree with me.” Gist points out. 

Tessa gritted her teeth, “Will anything change if I admit to who the dullahan is?” She asks him. 

“Just the truth coming out. Nothing more, nothing less.” Gist states in a matter fact tone. 

Tessa took in a deep breath, as she could feel tears in her eyes, “The dullahan is Shay Patrick Cormac.” 

End of line 


	13. Chapter 13

Gist, and Tessa talked and planned. Yes, they did this in Latin, neither wanted to get her family involved in there schemes. The plan was set in motion two days later. Oliver had told everyone about the jack o lantern trail, and at the end of the trail was the van tassel house. There would be a large bonfire, with marshmallows and cider. Tessa had left early, to meet up with Gist. 

“Gist what is this?” Tessa asks looking at the jacket. The jacket was made out black leather with silver and red stripes starting from the shoulders and ending at the wrists. Around the collar was another silver stripe, while at the bottom was a red stripe, on the left pocket was a hand stitched yellow ribbon, while on the right pocket was a hand stitched red cross. It was a lovely jacket.

“Your new jacket.” Gist says beaming, as scooped up the ashes from the fire. 

“Huh.” Tessa says removing the hoodie that Oilver had given her, and pulling on the jacket. It fit perfectly. “Thank you Gist.” 

“Your welcome my dear,” Gist stood and tied the bag with the ashes, “You know the plan?” 

“Take Lantern, locate Monro, use the ashes and say spell and free him from the spell.” Tessa tells him taking the ashes and tucking them into the jacket’s pocket. 

“Not just that, you need to lead Monro away from town. The spell will only work if he is not in town.” Gist reminds her, as he took a step back and cast a spell. “How do I look?” He asks, sounding and looking like Tessa. 

“Like me.” Tessa with a cocked eyebrow. “Are you sure you'll be able to find the person doing this?” 

“There going to give themselves away whether they know it or not.” Gist tells her, with a toothy smile. 

“Alright, just don’t touch Jacob.” Tessa requests as she whistled and Lantern came trotting over. 

“Be careful my dear. Your wound is still fresh and with Shay under this person control your odds aren’t looking good.” Gist warns. 

“I got my gold Gist, I’ll be fine. Find Shay’s head and free him.” Tess asks mounting Lantern and ridning off. 

“Be safe my dear.” Gist whispers walking away, and to join the others.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Tessa was still working how she was going to get Monro attention. It’s not like the guy would come if she called him. That only worked back before he was under the spell. But, now who knew? And luck would have it that she ran into him as she was leaving the woods. The headless horseman reared and threw a flaming pumpkin at her. 

“A little on the NOSE DON’T YOU THINK!” Tessa yells ducking as the pumpking land next to her, the pumpking let out a thud and then exploded, blinding Tessa. Lantern being the smart ghost horse that he was, wasn’t fazed. He ran through the woods doding the pumpkins, as Tessa tried to fix her vision. 

“God damnit.” Tessa hisses rubbing her eyes, and blinking a few times. The pair rode as fast as they could getting to the very edge of town, and by some small maricle they made it there before Monro. Tessa got off Lantern and waited. She didn’t have to wait long, as Monro found them. The ghost stopped and got off his horse and slowly approached them, sword at the ready. 

“Monro stop!” Tessa yelled, but the horseman didn’t stop, he kept approaching. “Monro please stop! You need to fight this spell, you're better than this. I know you are.” Monro did stop, but not due to Tessa. He had reached the edge of town. 

“I did try to warn you.” She tells him with a smile, as she pulled the bag with the ashes out. Monro was stuck, which gave her the perfect chance to throw the ashes on him and recit the spell, “ _horologii retrorsum et animum terga corpus horologium liberaret. Revertere ergo et liberabo ille qui est in potestate. Huic liberate a domino suo: ipsi adhærebis, in media hac turpi honestum. Liberate magis bonum quam ille qui malum feci. Eum a dolorem reddere._ (Turn back the clock, and free the mind, turn back the clock and free the body. Turn back time and free the one who is not in control. Free this man from his master, cleave in half this foul spell. Free the one who has done more good than bad. Set him free from his pain, and bring him back.)” Tessa held her breath as Monro glowed white, and then nothing. 

“FUCKING HELL!” She yells, “I did everything right, didn’t I?” She asks looking at Lantern who gave her shoulder a soft nuzzle. “I know I did. Maybe the spell was too strong.” Monro's headless body stood there, and Tessa slowly approached him.

“Monro?” She asks in a soft voice, Monro slashed at her and Tessa jumped backwards in fright. “FUCK!” She yells jumping back on Lantern. The horseman took another swipe at her this time it hit. Tessa let out a pained yell as the tip of the blade cut through her pants leg.

“Monro I know you don't mean to do this. Please come back.” She pleads as the gash starts to bleed. But, Monro kept swiping at her. Lantern took the hint and rode off.

“Lantern we need to find Gist. The spell didn't work. Monro is still under this person's spell.” She tells the horse. Lantern let out a whine as he rode them into the woods.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“You're not the real Tessa.” Lucy says to ‘Tessa’. Tessa was sitting on the log, with leg crossed over the other, elbow blanched on her knee and her check against her faist. The group was at the bonfire, and it was going well, but now it wasn’t. Lucy adjusted her bag, as the fake Tessa gave a toothy grin.

“Oh dear,” Tessa says, sounding mock hurt, “Whatever gave me away?” 

Lucy narrowed her eyes as the impostor could only smirk, “Your not on top of Jacob. Tessa never misses a chance to sit in his lap or to be all lovey dovey.” Lucy explains with a hiss. 

“Oh dear, I’ve been caught. Whatever shall I do?” Tessa asks standing and letting out an annoyed sigh. “Funny how you were able to tell and no one else was. I do wonder.” 

“What do you wonder?” Lucy asks as the impostor eyes flashed red, and in a flash she was in front of Lucy. The impostor grabbed her wrist and yanked it forward, Lucy struggled but, the impostor grib was strong. With there free hand the impostor rolled down Lucy’s sleeve and grinned. 

“I had a feeling it was you.” Burned into Lucy’s arm was a spider.

“How?” Lucy yells casting a spell which forces the impostor to let go, as Lucy jumps back and hides the mark. 

The impostor wagged there finger and tutted, “Powerful magic leaves behind marks. You’ve been very naughty my dear, isn’t that right Morrigan?” The dog seemingly appeared out of nowhere let out a deep growl. 

It was Lucy’s turn to smirk, “A church grim? This fucking town has a church grim. I’m glad I went back and grabbed something to deal with you.” 

The impostor narrowed her eyes and Morrigan let out a deep growl as Lucy opened her bag and pulled out a dog’s skull. Morrigan shark back in fright. “The only weakness a church girm has, is it’s own bones.” 

“Vile bitch!” The impostor yells, “First you steal from the Colonel, then the dullahan and now from Morrigan. Do your wicked deeds have no end?” 

“No, all I wanted was my revenge against the so-called Colonel for what he did to my family.” Lucy explains as she toyed with the skull. 

“You're a child playing with forces you don’t understand.” The impostor snaps at her. 

Lucy could only shrug as she put the skull back into her bag and pulled a knife. “I understand and beings like you shouldn’t have this type of power. Not after he did to my grandfather.” As she twirled the knife around in her hand. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” The impostor snaps, as the real Tessa arrived and was coming for them. 

Lucy growled, “You know what I’m talking about. You were there, you're the oldest ghost in this town.” The impostor let out a growl as Tessa approached, they could see the mark on her leg, and the blood. “You and the colonel will pay for what you did.” As she spun on her heel and stabbed Tessa in the stomach. “And I’ll start by taking someone you both care about.”

“TESSA!” Everyone yells as she falls to the ground, blood pouring from the wound.

End of line 


	14. Chapter 14

Everyone was frozen as the pool of blood grew and stained the ground. Morrigan changed into her true form and started growling and howling as the imposter ripped the illusion away to reveal Gist. 

“GIST!” Haytham, Malik, Altair, and Connor all yell seeing the ghost. The ghost however ignored them as he was, shaking from anger and rage. 

“Lucy why?” Desmond asks slack jawed. 

“Why? Why does it matter Desmond? She wasn’t your real sister, just a stray your parents felt sorry for.” Lucy tells him with a cruel smile, she looked at Morrigan who was still growling. “You can’t attack me.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that my dear.” Gist says in a low voice, “Why?” 

“Why? Why did I plan this, why did I kill Tessa? You want to know WHY!” She spites out at him. Gist didn’t say anything as his eyes slowly turned red, “Ask your precious colonel.” 

“What did Monro ever do to you?” Gist asks her

Lucy rolled her eyes, “Colonel George Monro served during the time of the american revolution but lost his head to a cannonball. He was buried here in Sleepy Hollow and became the headless horseman. Everyone in town talks about all the good he does, how he keeps the town safe. But, where was he when my grandfather needed help? That’s right Monro chased him out of town!” 

“What are you- your grandfather is Ichabod Crane!” Gist yells as Lucy smirked. “Crane was nothing but a selfish, gluttonous, prideful, sexist, vulgar man. He only came here to marry Kathrine. He never loved her, he just loved her money.” 

“And yet Monro and Brom Bones scared him out of town!” She growls out. 

“They had no choice. Crane was hurting everyone in town with his ways. He took more than he gave. It was our only option at the time.” Gist pleads to everyone, “You weren’t there you didn’t see how bad it got.” 

“Oh and pray tell how did it get?” Lucy mock asks him. 

“Bad. Crane was draining the windows dry, he kept taking food, money and the like. And he never paid them back.” Gist explains, “We did what we had to.” 

“Lucy maybe Gist is right.” Desmond says, “Crane doesn’t sound like a good guy.” 

Lucy cast him a glare, “Why did you have to kill tess?” Jacob demands “She did nothing wrong.” 

“Are you so sure? She killed Shay after all.” Lucy points out as she kicks Tessa's body. 

“Tessa didn’t kill Shay.” Evie states with a scowl. 

“Are you so sure about that?” Lucy asks her, as everyone froze to what sounded like horses approaching, “In fact why don’t we ask him?” 

Gist growled, “You don’t understand the forces you're messing with. The balance of this world needs to be kept.” 

“Lucy, you need to stop this,” Henry pleads with her as Lucy gives him a dismissive hand wave. 

The two creatures that appeared were imposing the first was Monro sans his head as he stood off to the side. And the second was something else. 

The creature was tall, easily clearing seven feet. On its shoulder was the head of a young man with dark brown hair down in a small pony tale, his skin was deathly pale and his eyes were yellow. On his face was a scar that started above his right eyebrow and ended under his eye, and going around the young man’s neck was a deep and jagged scar. The young man wore a long black overcoat, trimmed in silver and red, with two brown leather straps going across its chest. The jacket was adorned with silver buckles, with some hidden by the straps. The creature was wearing a pair of black gloves with silver skulls embroidered on the back of gloves. Around the creature's waist was a red and white sash that hung over it's right hip. On top of the sash was a ridiculous amount of brown belts. And on one of the belts, was a silver belt buckle with the Yggdrasill on it. 

“Shay.” Gist greets through clenched teeth. Shay didn’t say anything as he looked to the body on the ground, and his eyes went wide. 

“TESSA!” He yells running over to the body, “No, no, no, no, God no.” He repeats picking up the body, “You can’t be, it wasn’t your time. Who did this!?” He yells. 

Lucy took a step back, “What the hell is going? You're not supposed to be acting like this, and why are you wearing your head!?” She yells at Shay. 

“Not now,” Shay snaps at Lucy, “Oh Tessa, who did this to you?” 

“Why Shay, I see your back to normal. What say’s you Colonel?” Gist asks as Monro comes over now wearing his head. 

“I say this is very unfortunate. Gist what happened here?” Monro's soft and cultured voice asks. 

“The young lady killed Tessa.” Gist simply says. 

“I don’t understand, what the fuck is going?” Lucy asks as her eyes went wide with fright. 

“I did try to warn you my dear.” Gist simply says let out a huff as he spun his finger and Lucy bag vanished. “A simple illusion spell. The knife was real, sadly.” 

“What? When?” Lucy asks him. 

“While we were walking on the path, I switched the bags, and stole Shay’s head back and gave it to Morrgian to give back to him.” Gist explains, “You never stood a chance.” 

“You killed my sister.” Shay whispers, setting Tessa’s body down. “I can’t forgive that. Colonel, shall we?” 

“Oh we shall Shay. I would suggest that you run my dear.” Monro warns her. Lucy looked between Gist and Monro and ran, with Morrgian chasing after her. Gist and Monro followed suit, as Gist started to laugh. 

“Oh my dear, how much fun was that?” Gist asks Tessa. 

“Fuck you GIST!” Tessa yells sitting up and rubbing her chest, “Why the fuck didn’t you try and warn me, she was going to stab me?” 

Gist could only laugh harder. 

End of line 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left to go.

“I fucking hate you Gist.” Tessa growls as she rubbed the front of the jacket, “Like Christ you could have warned me.” 

Gist let out a bark of laughter, “I could have my sweet, but I didn’t want to ruin the fun.” 

“You and me have two very different definitions of fun it seems.” Tessa mutters with an eye roll, “God I gotta remember to thank Maxwell, those acting lessons really paid off.” 

“That they have.” Gist agreed with a grin, and then the grin left his face, as he looked at Tessa’s leg. “Oh my sweet your leg.” 

“Yea, Monroe got me.” Tessa tells him while rubbing the back of her neck, “I don’t blame him.” 

“I know you wouldn’t my dear. Now sit, while I tend to that.” Gist urges, as Tessa sat down. 

“What the hell is going on?” Desmond demands looking at Tessa who had rolled up her pants leg. “What happened to Lucy? Who was that?” 

“Who was who?” Tessa asks as Gist let out a noise of discomfort as he saw the wound. It was a long gash that was still bleeding. 

“The ghosts?” Desmond states, as Tessa gave him a bored look. 

“You mean Shay and Monroe?” She asks him and winces as Gist starts to clean the wound. “Des, I don't like repeating myself, let's just wait for Shay and Monroe.”

Desmond let out a huff, “Desmond enough.” Ziio snaps at her son. “Tessa what's going on?”

“I'll explain once Shay and Monroe get back. There's a lot more going on here.” Tessa simply tells her, as Gist applied the slave to the wound. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long as Morrgian came back first, and rushed over to Tessa. The grim let out a series of happy barks, as she started to lick and nuzzle Tessa. 

“Good job Morrgian.” Tessa praises while petting the dog’s head. She didn’t comment on the blood that was on the dog’s muzzle or matted into her fur. Tessa the dog on the neck, as she stood and stretched upwards. She was more than happy to see who arrived next. She smiled a bright smile, 

“MONROE!” She yells rushing at the much older ghost, she threw herself at Monroe. The ghost stumbled but thankfully didn’t flutter. 

“Tessa? How?” He asks as she hugged him tightly. 

Tessa gave a soft chuckle, “Oh you and Shay are going to love this.” She tells him with a wide grin, and wink. 

“I look forward to the explanation my sweet.” Monroe tells her. 

“I believe we all do.” Haytham says watching Tessa pull out of the hug. Before anyone could say anything, Shay arrived back. The dullahan stopped, and stared before rushing and picking up Tessa. The younger cormac let out a squeak as she was picked up off the ground.

“For fuck’s sake do I weight anything to you?” She yelps out as Shay hugged her tightly. 

“My God, you're not dead? How is that possible?” Shay gasps, placing Tessa down, and sees that there was no wound. 

“I believe that is the question on everyone’s mind Shay.” Monroe says as Tessa frowned. 

“Gist, gave me a dragon’s leather jacket.” Tessa tells them, “And as we all know no mortal made weapon can pierce the hide of a dragon. And when made into leather, the effect stays. The only way to pierce the hide of a dragon is with an enchanted blade.” 

“Oh.” Both Shay and Monroe says nodding there heads, “That was quite clever of you Gist.” Shay says as Gist started to laugh once more. 

“As I recall my dear, you had a very nice black hoodie, what happened to it?” Monroe asks as Tessa winces and rubbed the wound on her arm, “Aww I see. I apologize for my actions. I wasn’t in the right mind, and I hurt you and anyone else, I am deeply sorry.” 

“Monroe you have nothing to say sorry for.” Tessa tells him, “You were under a powerful spell.” 

“I am still accountable for my actions, my dear. I thought that was what I taught you.” Monroe points as Tessa nodded her head yes. 

“So what happened to the hoodie?” Shay asks, looking at Tessa. 

“Oh I burned it and used it for the counterspell to free the colonel.” Gist tells him with a shrug.

“That was my hoodie, Gist.” Shay growls out. 

“Was, you died and it became mine. And it got ruined, so we used it to free Monroe.” Tessa smugly tells him. 

“But it was mine.” Shay corrects. 

“Shay, what's done is done. Let it go.” Gist warns. 

“But...” Shay starters but got a warning glare from Gist and he stopped. “Very well. I’m just happy you're alright Tessa.” 

“Eh, it’s been an odd few days.” Tessa admits with a shrug, “Still not as bad as the summer when I was thirteen.” 

“What happened then?” Shay asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“I broke my ankle, by stepping into a gopher hole.” She states with a scowl. 

“That’s not all.” Gist says with anmused and knowing smile on his face. 

“Gist.” Both Tessa and Monroe hiss/warn. 

“I think we're all missing something. But, I don’t think we want to know, do we?” Shay asks as the three shock there heads no.

Tessa then let out a soft hum as she gazed to Monroe and Gist. “You both once told me that when I was older you would tell me a story. A story about Crane and the role you both played with him.” She says sitting down on the ground. 

“What says you colonel?” Gist asks about finding a spot on a log. 

“I think it is time.” Monroe agrees, “Shay if you would sit as well. This is a story you both need to hear.” 

“What about Oliver?” Shay asks, sitting down next to Tessa. 

“We told him, so he knows.” Gist explains as Tessa scowled. “You keep that up, and your face will freeze.” 

“It won’t.” She snaps at him but lets out a huff. 

“Now where to start.” Gist says with a hum, “Back when Sleepy Hollow was nothing more than a sleepy hamlet of a village there was a young woman named KatrinaVan Tassel and a young man named Brom Bones. Irving got one thing right about Katrina and it was that she was a very cheerful, graceful, demure, smart and poised and elegant young woman. And the townsfolk loved her and Brom, very much. Brom was one of the best hunters in town and helped many of the families put food on there tables, and Katrina used her family's wealth to provide for those in need.” Gist gestured for Monroe to take over. 

“The town was in dire need of a schoolmaster, and they hired Ichabod Crone.” Monroe says taking over, “Crane arrived at the start of October of that year. It was a sleepy and dull day, but most days back then were like. Myself, Morrigan and Gist all got a bad vibe from the man. Right off the bat, he stole a meat pie from the bakery, and the poor girl got in trouble for the missing pie. Poor girl was in tears. Gist was able to prove that she didn’t do it and all was well. Crane used his position as schoolmaster to find new and creative ways to leech off the people.” Monroe supplies. 

“It was never good. He would go to the homes of the windows or promising young women and enjoy meals with them and take more than his share. Those women sadly adored him. He would set up meetings and like to get money, clothes and food all for free. He would lie to the townsfolk to get his way. It was disgusting.” Gist adds with a growl.

“I’m sure Brom and Katrina didn’t stand for his actions.” Eive asks, earning a smile from Gist and Monore. 

“You would be right. More often than not I would hear Brom in the woods hunting and talking to some of his friends about Crane behavior. It only got worse when Crane met Katrina. Crane was in love with Katrina the moment he laid eyes on her. But, it wasn’t for her personality it was for her beauty and wealth. And Crane was going to get that money, come hell or high water. Brom couldn’t stand for that, see the lad loved Katrina but could never tell her.” Monroe explains. 

“The week before Halloween, Brom comes to see me and the colonel deep in the woods, and pleads with us. He begs and pleads for us to fix this mess with Crane. We simply tell him we can’t interfere in the affairs of the living,” Gist paused as he got a look from both Shay and Tessa, Gist let out a cough, “The colonel and I took pity on the lad, and came up with a scheme.” 

“And rest as they say is history.” Monroe simply says. 

“So you did all that to keep the town safe from Crane and his greed?” Ziio asks as the ghosts nodded there heads yes. 

“It’s our job to keep the town safe.” Gist simply says, “And Crane would have ruined it.” 

“And Lucy almost did that.” Tessa mutters with a sigh, “God that is bad.” 

“Not as bad as her trying to remove Shay from the balance of this world.” Gist points out. 

“Why?” Connor asks. 

“Shay is an avatar of death, you can’t remove an avatar of death.” Gist tells him. 

“It’s never a good idea to do such a thing.” Monroe tells him. 

End of line 


	16. Chapter 16

Jacob woke the next afternoon with a low groan and to a cold bed. His eyes shot open to see that Tessa was gone. Now awake, he couldn’t find her in the bedroom or in the bathroom. He got dressed quickly and headed to the dining room. Oliver told him that she was at Gist glade, and Morrigan could show him where to go. The dog had a shitting grin, as Oliver talked. It was down right creepy. Morrigan led Jacob deep into the woods and to an open glade, and there was Tessa. Sitting on a log and poking at the fire with a stick. Jacob didn’t say anything right away as he walked over and joined her. Morrgian sat down in front of the fire. Jacob wasn’t sure what to say, last night was one hell of a trip. 

“I’ll understand if you want to break up with me.” Tessa says, breaking the silence, as she poked at the fire. 

“What?” Jacob sputters in confusion. 

Tessa’s shoulder slouched, “If you want to break up with me after last night. I understand, it’s a lot to take in and if you can’t handle or deal with it. You're free.” Tessa explains jabbing a log a little harder than needed. 

“You think last night was too much for me?” Jacob asks her, as he moves closer to her. 

“Yes.” Tessa snaps at him. Jacob couldn’t help but laugh as Tessa gave him a sour and pointed look, “What the fuck is so funny?” 

“You are. Why the hell would I want to break up with you?” He asks, throwing his arm over her shoulders and pulling her close. 

“Jacob I deal with magic, my brother is a dullahan, one of my guardians is the headless horseman, I have a grim for a dog, I’ve been to Wonderland. I can do and know things that aren’t normal. Doesn’t this I don’t know.” Tessa asks as she fiddles with the stick. “Doesn’t this turn you off? Scare you? Make me seem weird?” 

“It’s all a little weird, and I get it, you're scared that I’ll leave you. But, I’ll let you in on a secret.” Jacob says, as Tessa looked at him. 

“And what’s that?” She asks him, Jacob smirked and kissed her. Tessa let out a squeak as she kissed him back. 

“You're not getting rid of me any time soon. Sadly tess you're stuck with me.” Jacob says as he pulls out the kiss. 

Tessa let out a chuckle. “Oh dear lord, I’m stuck with you.” As she shakes her head, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. But,” 

“But?” 

“Do you know how Shay died?” She asks him looking at the fire. 

“Murdered right? They found his body sometime in November.” 

“Yea,” Tessa whispers biting her lip, “When I was ten I wanted one thing for my birthday. It was this nice set of pastels. They were amazing and I bugged Shay about them for two months straight. He kept telling me they were too much money and so on. But, I kept at it. I saved all of my pocket money he gave me, and I was pumped to buy them myself. But, the money was stolen and I was heartbroken.” 

“I remember that. That bastard Robert stole the money and Ziio had to spend two hours trying to calm you down.” 

“Yea, anyway. My birthday came and went, and Shay never showed up. Ziio took me home, stayed with me, and she waited. Shay never came home that night, or next, or the night after. The police were called, they looked for him. We waited for two weeks, and then one day they found his body. He had been mugged and killed.” Tessa explains choking back her tears, “They didn’t find much on his body but his wallet and a receipt to the art store. He had bough those fucking pastels.” As she had started to cry. 

“Oh tess.” Jacob coos pulling her into a tight hug, and it clicked in Jacob’s head. “You didn’t kill your brother.” 

“Yes I did.” Tessa sobs, “If I had listened to Shay, that I wouldn’t have taken the money to school. And Robert wouldn’t have stolen it.” 

“And he would still be alive?” Jacob says/asks as Tessa nodded her head. “You can’t change the past.” 

“I wish I could. Shay didn’t deserve the death he got.” She softly says holding onto Jacob. 

“But, he’s not technically dead right?” Jacob asks her. 

“He’s a dullahan. I guess that’s better.” She whispers looking at him with a sad smile, “Sorry for laying this out, on you like this.” 

“It’s fine. You needed to get it off your chest.” Jacob tells her, as he kissed her forehead. 

“Do you think Shay blames me?” She asks him.

“Don’t know you would have to ask him.” Jacob tells her. 

“I will eventually. Right now, I don’t think I can.” She admits. “Right now, I want to enjoy this.” 

“Enjoy this moment?” 

“Yes.” 

End of line


End file.
